Trustworthy
by writer w passion
Summary: A war is threatening Agrabah. Jasmine as the new Sultana has to make the sacrifices that is needed to stay away from the war which leads Aladdin to a journey he has never experienced before. He needs to prove everyone that he's trustworthy in order to save his new kingdom. (set to the live action universe)
1. Chapter 1

**Trustworthy**

by - writer w passion

The desert moonlight shined trough the balcony to their large bedroom. The gentle wind made the fires on the balcony torches dance. It also made the flowers swing on the wind so it made some relaxing sounds. This night the moon was almost full and the sky was clear leaving the stars their space to shine. It was already past midnight and the cold steady desert night was about to begin. You could hear the people of the city of Agrabah lower their voices and get ready for bed – the ones that weren't already sleeping. If you listened closely enough you could hear children's quiet snore and camels eating their midnight meal. You could see even up from the palace that the city started to turn into completely darkness when people lighted off their candles and fires. Now the city was lighted with only the moonlight and a couple of fireflies. Agrabah seemed so calm at nights. In the afternoon you could easily get lost to the busy streets and if it was a bad day for you, you could have gotten into troubles. City of Agrabah was full of thieves and mysterious travellers. You always had to keep guard when visiting Agrabah. But Agrabah had two sides. On top of the city, in the palace you did not need to watch your moves. The palace was a heaven compared to the city life of Agrabah. You could always see light from some room, always smell nice spices and never get yourself dirty or into trouble. At the palace someone was always up. The palace didn't sleep at all. Someone was always awake to guard the treasure and the royalty.

Speaking of royalty, the Sultana of Agrabah was also safe and sound at the palace guarded with hundreds of guards, as usually. She always was. Had always been. Even when she was a little, innocent baby-princess she would have been guarded with all the forces of the palace if it was needed. Jasmine, however, didn't need all those guards, their weapons or even the palace walls to feel safe right now. She had something stronger. Something more special. Something she never had before. Something, or should we say someone, that could have made her feel safe in any situation. She had a husband. She had love. She loved Aladdin more than anyone in this world and she always felt safe with him and in his arms. Aladdin felt safe too. At last. Almost for his whole life running on the streets begging for a miracle, he had never felt safer the he felt with Jasmine in the palace. His life had been the opposite to Jasmine's before marrying the former princess. He could never have dropped his guard and had gotten himself to trouble many, many times. Even once with Jasmine back when they had met for the first time. But things were different now. And he was glad that finally after years of insecurity he could finally feel safe. But he would do it million times over again if he had to. Because his past bought him to his wife. To Jasmine.

The couple were lying on bed. Jasmine rested her upper body covered with sheets on Aladdin's chest area. She could feel his heartbeat on her right shoulder. Aladdin's other hand was playing with Jasmine's messy hair and the other was wrapped around her waist. Jasmine felt the sweat between her back and his lower stomach. She enjoyed the warmth it bought to her body. Their bodies fitted together perfectly. They were both watching the city go asleep, on silence. They were still wide awake and could hear each other's breaths. Sometimes they did close their eyes to just enjoy the moment. Their room was lightened with couple of torches, but the moon bought most of the light into their room. Moonlight shined perfectly on Jasmine's bare skin and in Aladdin's opinion made it look even smoother and softer, if that was possible. Jasmine didn't need to see Aladdin's face, but she knew that the moonlight sparked on his large, brown eyes and on his softest hair. She smiled thinking about her husband's face. It had been at least half an hour since she last saw it. They had just been lying on each other, enjoying each other's presence and the feeling they had when they hold on to each other.

It was just like he had been reading the first ever female Sultan's thoughts. He started to move under Jasmine's body and moved her upper body gently from his chest to the softest cushions of the large bed. Jasmine shivered a little bit when the warmth and the humidity from her back disappeared. She saw her husband's face for the first time in forever – or at least it felt like an eternity to her – as he had gently moved from under Jasmine on top of her. He placed his right hand on the right side of Jasmine's body and his left hand on the left side of her body. Jasmine's body shivered again, but now of the gentle touch of Aladdin's right hand on her skin on her shoulder. Now they could directly see each other's faces. Jasmine smiled. Their faces were so close that they could have felt each other's breaths. Aladdin smiled too. And then he finally touched lips with Jasmine's. Their lips joined together like they had done so many times. Every time still felt like the first time. Just with more passion and awareness of each other's needs. Jasmine obviously answered the kiss. First softly but after a moment she turned it into passion. She just loved the feeling of Aladdin's soft lips on hers. She didn't know what she had ever done so right to get so lucky. They stayed like this for several minutes until they both needed to pull away for some air. They breathed heavily and Jasmine run her finger through Aladdin's jaw line. Aladdin just stared down at her.

"You're so beautiful." he whispered.

Jasmine smiled at her husband and run her finger through his jaw line one more time. She rested her hands around Aladdin's neck.

"You too."

"Beautiful?"

She was in trance. But could you blame her? Aladdin looked like an angel on earth on the light of the moonlight.

"Yeah. I mean, handsome. But also beautiful."

Aladdin laughed quietly. Allah, how she adored that laugh.

Aladdin kissed Jasmine's forehead softly. After a while Aladdin pulled his lips away from her skin but kept them close for several seconds. Jasmine closed her eyes. Even though Aladdin had pulled his lips away she could feel his breathing on her forehead's skin. Then she finally opened them when Aladdin had pulled completely away and let her eyes lock with Aladdin's.

"I wish we could just pause the moment here." he said.

Jasmine made Aladdin's face come a little bit closer again before she answered him.

"I know."

The answer was so quiet that she wasn't sure if he even heard her. But if he didn't, it was good that they knew it wasn't necessary. He knew that she wanted the same.

Jasmine moved her hands on the bottom of his head and started playing with Aladdin's hair. It slowly made Aladdin even more relaxed. The spark of the moonlight never left his eyes and Jasmine doubt his hair had never felt so soft.

"Did I ever tell you how soft your hair was?" she asked. She didn't even plan on asking that. It just came out.

Aladdin laughed "I know. It's called shampoo."

Jasmine shook her head to the joke as her smile grew bigger. Way to ruin a good compliment. She rose her head from the soft beige pillow so she could reach out to Aladdin's lips. Another kiss was shared. The kiss was soft and gentle. You could feel tiredness through it. It was already over one o'clock at midnight, after all. But on the other hand, it was passioned and full of love and respect. When Jasmine finally pulled away, she made her way back and rested her head against the pillow once again. Aladdin's face was still close. She looked at his eyes. She tried reading him. His thoughts, his feelings.

"Are you tired?" Jasmine asked him.

"I got to admit..." he started with a small smile and soft sound, a simple light voice that could have been heard on the silence of the Arabian night. "I am."

Jasmine smiled at him. She guided his head on his side of the bed. But she kept his head close to her body. She held him close to her. So close that no one could ever took him away from her. Aladdin breathed heavily and closed his eyes as he leaned besides Jasmine. They were so close that Jasmine could play her fingers on his cheek. And she did. She looked down at Aladdin's face. He didn't bother to open his eyes after he had laid his head on the soft pillow. Aladdin's hand rested softly around Jasmine's waist. Jasmine kept smoothing Aladdin's cheek with her fingers and placed a light kiss upon his forehead.

"Good night, my love." she whispered.

"Good night."

The wind blew off the last fires of the room and the room fell into darkens.

It didn't take Aladdin even ten minutes to fall asleep. But Jasmine was still awake. It always took her longer than her husband to fall asleep. Jasmine kept her eyes open. She wanted to watch Aladdin's sleeping face like she had done so many nights and mornings. She still run her fingers through Aladdin's cheek. She knew that her touch wouldn't wake him up.

But that was not the only reason why she didn't catch a sleep. She had so many things going on in her mind. But right now, something among the others bothered her more. Something she knew she should tell Aladdin about, but she hadn't. You could say she had been keeping a secret. She wasn't sure why she didn't share it with him. She guested that she wanted to make her own mind clear about the situation before asking someone else. Especially Aladdin. Nevertheless, it was hard for her. Her heart told her the opposite then her mind. Whatever she would decide, it would be wrong in some way. Wrong to her heart or wrong to her mind. There was no such a thing as easy way. And she knew that. She needed to _risk _someone.

The taught made Jasmine sick. Being a Sultana wasn't that easy after all. Not like she had even thought it was. She had always admired her father's hard work for the kingdom and its pride. She knew she was able to do the same. It was just obstacles like this that made her think the job on the other way – not just a task of honour but a challenge. When she finally took her eyes away from her sleeping husband, she turned them to look at the ceiling. She stared straight up for several seconds, thinking. But she quickly forgot what she had been thinking about as her eyes started to get heavy. Maybe it was the depression, but she didn't want to admit it. Or then it was just that she finally started to feel sleepy. Even if her eyes were now close she managed to keep her fingers on move on Aladdin's skin, but it started to get slower. As Jasmine too started to feel the pressure of the midnight her breathing slowly calmed down. She could now join the dream her husband was already in until the torrid sun of the desert would wake them up in the next morning, just to find herself on his arms once again.

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**Here we go, the first chapter of my new fanfiction! Thank you for reading, means a lot to me. ****I hope you liked it, I'm really looking forward continuing it. I'm trying my best to stay motivated and just so you know, I'm kinda a slow writer since English is not my mother tongue. So please forgive me the possible mistakes I might make... I hope my writing is still bearable, writing is only a hobby of mine but I really enjoy doing it and want to keep practicing.**

**This first chapter is really soft and short, I know. But I will (try to) add more drama and adventure as the story continues. At least I left you there with a cliffhanger, what is the "secret" Jasmine is keeping?**

**I'm sad to tell that I'm going away tomorrow for several days so no update until I come back home. But please be patience and leave a comment, favorite the story and stuff like that so I know you want an update as soon as I get home (prob in the beginning of next week)****. I've been working on this plot for a while now and it would be so sad for me if it flopped. **

**Also, I do not own anything from Aladdin. Just a fan who adored the movie. But as the story continues there will be some new charecters created by me. **


	2. Chapter 2

It was now morning. And the morning seemed to be far already. You could hear the people talking down at the streets and they were clearly already working on their daily jobs right now. The sun was on its way to the top of the city and as always, it already felt hot. That's one of the reasons why people of Agrabah started their jobs so early. The sun is like a killer at the desert at noon. Luckily the ocean cooled the city down and often bought a nice wind along. Even right now the distant waves bring a humble sound to the city and several boats were laden and ready to take off.

In the palace many people were already up too. Servants were starting their jobs, cooks were making the best breakfast you could possibly get in Agrabah and the guards obviously were guarding the palace walls and the aisles of the palace, and if needed, switching shifts.

It was the sun that woke up Jasmine too, as peruse. She opened her eyes slowly, trying to get used to the sudden light. The night had turned into a morning very quickly, more quickly then she had wanted. When she had finally got her eyes open, she rose her hand to whip away some sleep from her eyes. She breathed heavily and made a quiet moan as she tried to get used to the feeling of being awake. Her breathing made her stomach and chest rose as her lunges got fuller and as they did, she noticed the gentle hand around her waist. It was Aladdin's. She smiled. She woke up quite in a same position she had fallen asleep last night. Only now Aladdin's face wasn't beneath her field of vision. Now she needed to look up to see he's face. So, she turned around from her back to her stomach carefully not waking the man sleeping besides her and looked up to see his face. He was still sleeping. She wasn't surprised thought. She almost always woke up before him. She had many tasks to do so she could sometimes wake up very early and Aladdin was a heavy sleeper compared to her. He falls asleep quickly and wakes up slowly after the sunlight has filled the whole room. She didn't know if he had always been this way or if the palace, warmth, company, clean and soft bed and the feeling of security had turned him like this. She didn't mind either way. She enjoyed watching him.

She kept looking at his sleeping, calm face. She noticed that some of his jet-black hair had gotten into the way of he's closed eyes and reached the hair with her fingers to make them join the rest of the hair. He didn't move a bit. Jasmine smiled and slowly let her head rest on his chest. She felt how his chest moved gently underneath her as Aladdin breathed calmly in his sleep. She didn't close her eyes even though the movement could have been a good way to fall asleep for a couple of minutes again. But she kept her eyes open to observe her husband. She wondered what he could have been dreaming about.

Five minutes pasted. Then ten. Then twelve. He was still asleep.

Jasmine noticed that the clock was already half past ten. She sometimes needed to wake him up so they could start the day together and this seemed like one of those times. Usually she had to do royal tasks in the mornings but today was different, she didn't have anything until the afternoon.

She slowly reached up to his face and bought her lips near to his ear. She managed to find a comfortable position and her other hand was now resting on his chest instead of her head. Before she would whisper anything on his ear, she placed a soft kiss under it. She kept her lips there for a while and then started to whisper to his ear.

"Wake up, love."

She kept her tone down. Her eyes droved to look at his face, if she had made any process. Sadly no, he didn't move a bit. Jasmine sighted.

"Aladdin."

Now the voice was not a whisper anymore. It was more like a gentle calling. Jasmine also tried to shake him up a little. She saw him move a little and a little moan was found from his lips.

She knew what she needed to do next. She grinned to the idea.

Slowly Jasmine bought her face closer and closer to his until she met lips with him. He didn't obviously first answer back but after a while Jasmine felt a little push back. She smiled into the kiss and took her lips away. She opened her eyes to see Aladdin still eyes closed. Although there was something that wasn't found earlier. He's calm, unmoving lips were now in a little smile. Such a small smile, but it was seen. At least to those who knew how to read his face. And Jasmine was one of those, if not even the only one.

She smiled, quietly and kept staring at his face waiting for him to open his eyes. But he did not.

"I know you're awake." she finally decided to speak up. The tone was jokingly, even though she tried to keep it serious so it could be believable.

A man's voice spoke up for the first time. "I'm not."

Jasmine grinned and shook her head. "Then who answered the kiss?"

She saw Aladdin's smile grow bigger. And finally, he opened his eyes. He met them with Jasmine's. Hers were bright, so beautiful. It was like you could cast a spell with them. And Aladdin wasn't sure if she had done it to him already. She had clearly been awake for a while now. He joined the giggle Jasmine had started, and never ended.

"Good morning." he said.

"Morning." she answered.

Jasmine felt his arm got stronger around her waist. She enjoyed the touch and rested her elbow on the left side of him. Their faces were so close. So close it made Jasmine's head spin. It was funny how it made her feel the way she felt after almost a year waking up besides each other. Was it never going to be normal? Aladdin's head was also spinning but just because he had just woken up. Or who knows, maybe it was for the same reason as Jasmine's, after all? Or both. When Jasmine's smile toned down a little bit it seemed like a good moment to kiss him again. So she did. The kiss was soft, quick. A normal morning kiss they usually shared. When they pulled a part, they tried to find a better position. Aladdin changed to a more upstanding position and Jasmine turned around again to her back. Now Aladdin could wrap both his arms around her and rested his chin on top of Jasmine's head. Jasmine melted to the embrace. They both closed their eyes again but not to sleep, just to enjoy the company.

"How did you sleep?" Aladdin was the one who broke the not-so-long-lasted silence.

"Good." Jasmine answered to him. "How about you?"

"Perfect." he answered. It made Jasmine giggle a little. Always taking it too far.

A moment passed and no one talked. Aladdin was clearly still getting used to the light in the room while Jasmine observed her people through the balcony. She couldn't see much, but at least she saw some movements on the streets and birds flying by as she held on to Aladdin's arms and sometimes felt him change the position a little just to get his body awake.

Aladdin finally spoke up to make a conversation. "What have you planned for today?"

"Three meetings, several letters to write and some... money stuff."

"Can I help with anything?"

Jasmine taught a while. "Actually, could you go and check the people? I haven't been able to do that for a while now."

Aladdin was a bit surprised. He rose an eyebrow and gave Jasmine under his chin a look. She couldn't see it though, but luckily a surprised tone was found when he asked, "Don't you want to do that yourself?"

Jasmine let out a deep sight and closed her eyes but only for a moment. She really wanted to. But she didn't have time. Or she couldn't make that. She didn't know which way it was but what she knew was that she felt bad about it. And that it was not even her fault. Only her title's fault. She was still looking down to the city with her sad eyes.

"I want to." Jasmine started. "But I don't have time." she squeezed closer to Aladdin's body.

"Then make time. You're the Sultana." He managed to whisper to her ear after leaning down a little bit. His voice was quiet. He didn't want to shout at her ear.

"I know. Just check them out for me today, please?" Jasmine asked quickly. She tried to imagine Aladdin's face language even though it was nowhere in the vision.

Aladdin pulled a little away from her ear, not too far that he still could rest his head on her hair. "Of course." Aladdin answered. She placed a kiss on her hair and tapped his hand around Jasmine's waist. It made Jasmine laugh. He probably had seen where her mind was going, to guiltiness and the stress that the royal duties had bought her lately and wanted to light up the mood.

But what had been really going on in Agrabah was bad. Four days trip to north, you could reach a kingdom called Babauta. Babauta had been Agrabah's ally years ago. Jasmine's great-grandfather had been ruling Agrabah back then. The rulers of the land were good friends back then. They sent letters to each other's, visited each other's kingdoms and simply, were very close. But then something happened – they fell in love with the same princess. Sadly, the princess had feelings for the king of Babauta. So, the rulers decided to not keep in touch anymore. Just so things wouldn't get more complicated. They were clearly mad to each other's. It was all about envy and competition. Also, when the princess had a baby some people started to suspect that the baby was really the Sultan of Agrabah's. Rumores were left unfed and the thing had not been allowed to discuss in general.

So that is why Babauta and Agrabah's alliance was destroyed.

But it has nothing to do with the situation Jasmine and the rest of her family needed to face.

Babauta had declared a war to Agrabah a month ago. Jasmine and the rest of the palace had been shocked by the decoration. Things with Babauta had been complicated even when Jasmine's father was ruling, but they didn't know that things would expend to a war. Ruling of these two kingdoms were different and the ruler of Babauta didn't seem to like the way Agrabah was handling the ruling. Babauta was a mysterious country and getting to its black list was a thing no kingdom wanted. Jasmine hoped that Babauta would even consider speaking about the problems before throwing any actions in. And she was willing to work hard for it, even if it burned her out.

"C'mon, we should go to breakfast." she was still laughing. She heard Aladdin's disappointed moan as she started to free herself from his arms. When Jasmine stood up to go to her walk-in closet, she covered her naked body completely with the sheets she had already used for her bare upper body.

* * *

**I'm back, people! I had a longer chapter written but i spilled it in two so this chapter is short, again... The next one will be longer and it will come very soon. **

**I always forgot to add this "extra message" when I update so I'm sorry if you get bunch of nofications sksjks**

**I explained the situation with Babauta really badly. I may or may not rewrite it again. I really don't know how they handle things. I hope I can make it atleast a little bit realistic. Kingdom of Babauta is my own fictional place, everything else belongs to Disney. **

**Please let me know how you like my story so far. Chapter three is coming very soon, it explains a lot better the situation, I promise!**


	3. Chapter 3

The breakfast table was already filled with food, drinks and many kinds of different breakfasts when Jasmine and Aladdin walked in. The former Sultan, Jasmine's father was sitting on the edge of the table and Genie and Dalia were sitting on the left side of the table leaving room for Aladdin and Jasmine to join on the right side of the table. They were walking hand in hand quietly in. Dalia spotted them first.

Dalia and Genie had been traveling around the Mediterranean for a while. There was nothing wrong with the Mediterranee, in fact they have loved being aboard. But what they loved more were their dear friends Al and Jas. When they heard about the war and the situation Agrabah was facing with Babauta they wanted to come back and help. They were that kind of friends to Jasmine and Aladdin. Always ready to help. And they wanted to be on their side through this. There was also something different from when they have left Agrabah a couple of months ago. Dalia was 5 months pregnant with her and the Genie's first child. She was glowing and happy, as well as the Genie. They had both always wanted children. Dalia never knew that she would find someone like the Genie, so perfect that she wanted to have his babies. And what came to the Genie, well, he had been_ a genie_. He had told Aladdin that Genies don't have friends, but they also didn't have children either. So, it had only been a dream to him for a long time. And now thanks to his best friend, the former street boy Aladdin, he couldn't be more thankful.

Dalia called out. "Good morning love birds."

Aladdin and Jasmine both smiled a little to Dalia's call and answered back. Other members of the table were about to greet them, but before they could do that Dalia stood up and rushed in front of Jasmine.

"Can we talk?" she asked and made her way to the guest room next to the dining room. Jasmine rose her eyebrows but followed her and gave Aladdin a look as she let go of his hand. Aladdin made his way to sit in front of the Genie and greeted his father-in-law.

Meanwhile, Jasmine had made her way to the guest room where Dalia was already waiting for her. She closed the door before asking,

"What is it?" she rose her hands while asking the question. Dalia stand in front of her, arms crossed on her chest. She had a serious look on her face. Like Jasmine didn't know what she wanted to talk about...

"Have you talked to him yet?"

Jasmine travelled her eyes on the ground and on Dalia's face. "Not yet."

Dalia's mouth fell open as her hands fall from her chest on the both sides of her body.

"Jasmine! You have to talk to him."

"I know."

_Two days ago_

_Jasmine was reading a letter as she opened the giant golden doors and entered the room. The room was not empty, Dalia was there. She was the one Jasmine, maybe not wanted to, but needed to see right now. Dalia was laying on a giant bed, reading a book but was now staring at Jasmine, trying to read not her book but Jasmine's face. She tilted her head as she saw how focused on Jasmine was on the letter. She hardly had entered the room. Only stood up in front of the doors, which she had barely got even closed. She was like a frozen statue. Her eyes moved as she read the letter. _

"_Is it from Babauta?" Dalia asked quietly. She was praying and begging for it to be some good news. Everyone at the palace was getting tired of hearing only bad news. But everyone was also not laying it to only hope – there were also actions. _

"_Yes." Jasmine answered._

_Dalia stood up, left her book she was reading on the bed and slowly walked besides Jasmine. She rested her hands on the round tummy. "What does it say?" _

_Jasmine breathed heavily as she read the final words of the letter. Her face told everything – she was not happy about the thing the letter was telling her. Her hands started to shake a little. She didn't know why. But it made Dalia nervous besides her. _

"_They..." Jasmine started, eyes on the paper, lips starting to tremble "are willing to discuss about peace... if we send someone from the royal family to discuss about it to their kingdom within a week... and it must not be the Sultana." She narrowed her eyes to Dalia's face. Dalia could tell she was scared. What she didn't know was that for what reason she was being so afraid. She kept looking at her best friend._

"_I can't send Baba." she panicked and shook her head. "The trip is too long, and I need him here." _

_Jasmine sounded genuinely scared and sad. She finally let go of the letter and placed it on the table besides Dalia. She passed her and walked to calm herself down. She needed to tell herself there was nothing to be worried about. She nervously ran her fingers through her forehead and placed her other hand on her hip._

_Dalia turned as Jasmine passed by her. _

"_How about Aladdin?"_

_Jasmine froze and her eyes didn't seem to work anymore. They grew wide. She was still back facing to Dalia and stared out from the balcony. After a while she turned around to see Dalia's face._

"_What about him?" she asked. But she totally knew the answer already. And she didn't want to hear it._

"_Send Aladdin to Babauta." Dalia said. _

_That indeed was the answer Jasmine didn't want to hear. Her eyebrows got ticker and she bite her lip. _

"_I can't send him." she whispered. The whisper was so quiet that she wasn't even sure if Dalia had heard her. But at least Dalia read her well. _

"_Yes, you can. Don't you trust him?" _

"_Of course, I do." In fact, he was the person she trusted the most. Had always been since the day they met at the marketplace._

"_Then what is holding you back?" Dalia wanted an honest answer._

_Jasmine needed a moment to pull herself together. Couple of seconds passed before Jasmine gave the answer._

"_They will kill him." her answer was more like a cry. She was holding back the tears._

_Dalia saw the tears through the face and sharp eyes. The tears hadn't had time to roll down yet. She made her way to Jasmine and took her hands on hers. Jasmine turned to look down as a gentle familiar touch reached out on her hands. She closed her eyes, turned them to look at Dalia again, but not directly. Just avoiding the deep look, especially the eyes. _

"_What makes you think so?"_

"_He is not royal blood. They are not afraid of hurting him. I can't risk him. He's everything to me." she made sure to accent the word "everything" as she squeezed the hands even harder. And it seemed to work since a tear rolled down her face. _

_It was Dalia's turn to look at the ground. She knew how Jasmine felt. She had a husband too. And a kid on board. And it was not like she was worried for nothing. Babauta had indeed decorated war on __Agrabah__. Babauta was a mysterious kingdom. The tension was present. So present that it was felt on the air. Jasmine did not look at the ground. She kept staring at Dalia. Hoping she would speak up and told her something like "You don't need to send __him,__ we'll figure out something else." _

_Instead, she said, "They will not kill him. He might not be royal by birth but he's the Sultana's husband. So, he's a royal now."_

"_It's a trap." _

_Dalia was now confused "What is a trap?"_

"_The whole suggestion. They don't want peace. They want a war."_

"_You can't know if you don't try." _

_Jasmine freed her hands from Dalia's and walked to get the letter back. She read it once more. Quickly. She let out an-already-heard, deep sight once again. She was too tired pulling back her emotions. And it was even not necessary, she was whit Dalia who knew her so well and who she could always show her emotions. _

"_I don't want to send him..." she managed to cry aloud. She rose her hands where the letter was still founded. She covered her face with her other hand as the tears started to roll down._

_The girls kept silence for a while. Maybe to catch up their feelings about the situation. Or just to give Jasmine a moment to calm down. Or both. Dalia was looking at the ground, thinking, trying to find a better option. But __Agrabah__ was in a crisis. They were running out of time. But what they could all relate to was that they wanted to avoid war, keep the kingdom and its people safe. Jasmine couldn't avoid that. She knew what the right thing was to do. But she was scared, so scared._

_She turned to look back to Dalia with her reddish eyes. "Is that the only way?" she asked._

_But she knew the answer. There were no other royals at the palace than herself, her father and her husband. _

"_Yes. At least the only way I see."_

_Jasmine sighted and looked at the ceiling. She closed her eyes and just thought about sending Aladdin there. She imagined the worst way it could happen. She, sending her husband and the love of her life, right to the trap. To the kingdom where they hated him and __Agrabah__. They __arresting__ Aladdin and torturing him for the rest of his life. Or maybe they will kill him immediately. Or burn him alive. No._

_No. She shook her head and sharp opened her eyes to get away from the trance. They will not do that... She hoped._

"_At least talk to him." Dalia spoke up._

_And what else could Jasmine do but nod and say, "I will."_

"We are running out of time, Jasmine." Dalia spoke up.

She was right. On the letter it was said that they needed to send someone within a week. It was four days trip with camels or horses plus a boat ride to the kingdom and it had already been 2 days since the letter came.

"I know. I'll talk to him. After breakfast." Jasmine answered.

"You promise?"

"I promise."

Dalia walked closer to Jasmine as she returned her hands on her chest and tried to look as deep into her eyes as possible. "Look, I know it can be scary but it's the only way."

She met her eyes and kept a serious look on her face. The stress was pulling her too hard. "I know."

As Jasmine turned around, she opened the quest room door, tired of the conversation she was in. She wished she didn't need to send any one to risk their lives to the most dangerous country for Agrabah now. She pointed the way for Dalia.

"After you."

Dalia kept a serious look on her face. Did she even believed Jasmine when she said she was going to talk to him? She didn't say much, and she said "I know" way too many times. But Dalia decided to believe Jasmine – for now anyways. She knew how Jasmine was; strong, brave, good hearted and loving and therefor she wanted to believe her when she said she was going to do something to change the position they were now. But Dalia was just like a vane when it came to emotions.

Together the ladies entered back to the dining room. They took seats next to their husbands as the guys changed looks because of the girls' serious, iced tone of their faces. Usually Dalia and Jasmine smiled. But they didn't question the ladies as they got on their seats. People at the palace had rarely smiled nowadays because of the possible war. People were afraid for their families and loved ones.

The table and its people were quiet for a while. Aladdin and Jasmine were actually the only ones who talked for several minutes. They were talking so quietly to each other, so the others had really no idea what they were talking about. But reading their faces, they were not talking about the war. Jasmine was smiling as often as Aladdin and even laughing sometimes. Dalia kept looking at her food and tried to eat it all. Sometimes she glazed on Jasmine's way. The tension was still present between the ladies, usually they talked on breakfast, a lot. And not just the girls, all five of them. Jasmine seemed not to care about Dalia's sudden gazes on her way. She kept looking at Aladdin. As she sometimes even touched his face gently.

Finally, a voice was heard. A voice that everyone heard and not just the couple. And it was not Aladdin or even Jasmine's voice.

"So, Jasmine," the former Sultan, Jasmine's father spoke up.

Jasmine stopped her quiet laughing and turned her vision from Aladdin to her Baba. She was surprised, or more like forecasting the situation he wanted to talk about. Aladdin also turned to face her father-in-law. He kept his hand locked with Jasmine's.

"any news from Babauta?" the former Sultan, Hamed, finished his question.

For the first time in a while Jasmine turned to look at her best friend just a little bit. Dalia had clearly been looking at her for longer time. She rose her eyebrows like telling her "just say it". Jasmine took a silent breath and decided not to let Dalia's scary gaze distract her. She was going to talk to Aladdin about it in a while, until that the letter could be kept as a secret also from her father.

"No." she looked down. She squeezed Aladdin's hand just a little bit harder and rose her look back to her father, who just nodded as a return. On the other side of the table, Dalia's eyes had grown a lot bigger as she tilted her head to Jasmine. Jasmine was not a lying type of a person. But what she noticed was that Aladdin had seen Dalia's way of looking at Jasmine. Jasmine looked at her husband, who seemed really confused, then she drove Dalia a threatening look. It was now clearer than ever that these two held something.

And it did not help the situation when Dalia finally took her eyes away from Jasmine's face – to Aladdin's.

"Aladdin, can you press the marmalade, please?" she asked with a very polite tone and smiled wildly at him.

Aladdin rose his eyebrows; he and Dalia had become really good friends and these kinds of tones were never needed between them. And what also surprised him was that Jasmine was closer to the marmalade, but he gave her a confused answer,

"Sure, but Jasmine is literally closer." he laughed but when no one joined him he cut it off.

Aladdin let go of Jasmine's hand as he reached out the marmalade on the other side of him. Jasmine kept staring at Dalia. If a look could speak, it would have told Dalia to stop harassing Aladdin. Her look, in return, would say "fight me".

The Genie – who wasn't a genie any more but they kept calling him that – looked now like he could use some answers too. He hadn't ether said a word for a while.

"Okay, ladies. Care to tell us what's going on?" Genie was a person who always loved straight answers and honest speaking.

Dalia and Jasmine kept staring at each other. It was only a matter of time when one of them was going to speak up.

And they both did, at the same time.

"Nothing." came Jasmine's cold, quiet voice.

"They send a letter to Jasmine from Babauta a couple of days ago." said Dalia, louder, everyone heard her.

Jasmine gasped, "Mind your own business, Dalia!"

If looks could kill...

Dalia leaned back just a little.

"What did the letter say, Jasmine?" the former Sultan asked his only daughter.

Jasmine took a long breath before answering. "They are willing to consider peace if we sent someone to discuss about it to their kingdom within a week."

Her father nodded slowly.

"Why didn't you tell me? You know you can always ask my help. You don't have to balance all of it alone."

"I know. I'm sorry, Baba."

Her father sighted at her. He was thinking about the situation. But before he could say anything, Jasmine wanted to make sure that even a thought of him going wasn't an opinion.

"But that's why you can't go. I need you here." she quickly finished the sentence and kept staring at her father, waiting for an answer, a nod, something to say he understood.

And her father nodded at her. Nobody questioned that Jasmine couldn't handle the situation alone, but her father had indeed more experience. And now that he had promised Jasmine to be there for her, he couldn't dare to break that promise.

A silence fell on the table. Jasmine moved her hand a little bit remembering that it was not locked with Aladdin's anymore. He hadn't said anything for a while. She took her eyes away from her Baba to look down and take his hand, locking it with hers. Then she looked opposite her to Dalia and Genie, they were clearly looking at the direction of her and Aladdin.

She drove her look away as she didn't want to have a staring competition with either of them. She looked back to her father. He seemed to have made an idea.

"Aladdin could go." he spoke out.

Jasmine froze, and so did Aladdin.

"Me?" Aladdin said.

Aladdin haven't been thinking about going to do something so big for Agrabah like making peace. Did he even know how to do that? How could he. He had been living at the streets, alone with a monkey. He didn't need to do anything for others. Back at the streets he only stole for food, sometimes giving it to those who needed it more. Now he would have needed to make peace to save the people of Agrabah.

But Jasmine didn't freeze because she taught that Aladdin wasn't able to fill the task, opposite, she taught he could do it. She turned to look at the wall opposite her and didn't move a bit. She hadn't decided yet if she wanted to let him go, if she had the courage to let him go. Sure, she trusted him, with her whole heart and soul but the issue was her.

"Sure, you." the former Sultan spoke up.

But Aladdin wanted to do it. For his family, his wife and his new people. Even though he, too, was scared. But not for the same reason as Jasmine. He was afraid of failing.

"I guess I... could."

"Aladdin's not going." Jasmine stayed frozen and kept staring straight, her face did not move a bit.

Aladdin instead turned to look at his wife with a confused look.

"Why not?" he asked.

Jasmine drove her frozen eyes to meet with Aladdin's. The eyes looked so serious, almost angry. They made Aladdin nervous, he rarely saw Jasmine like this.

"You're just not going, end of the story." she snapped.

Aladdin's eyes got soft. He had no idea what made Jasmine believe in her point of view so strongly. After she saw Aladdin's gaze's sudden change, she realised they were almost hurt. Aladdin clearly had taught that there was something wrong with him and that's why she did not want to send him to fight for her kingdom's wealthy. But of course, there was nothing wrong with Aladdin. How could there be. Jasmine felt bad. She almost felt sick. She needed to get away from the table to calm herself down before she would hurt any other ones, not physically, emotionally.

"I have a meeting to go, excuse me." She stood up from the floor pillows they were sitting on and stormed out from the room leaving all the eyes watching on her as she walked away from the conversation she didn't even want to have just that moment.

After Jasmine was gone from the room and too far away to hear the next conversation Aladdin turned to look opposite him, to the direction he had firstly heard the information, to Dalia. He could use some answers and since his wife was _busy, _he could get them from someone else. He taught that Dalia sure would know what was going on in the Sultana's head.

"Why doesn't she want to send me?"

Aladdin drove his eyes to look at Dalia, she gave him a look back. She clearly should have stayed silent and trusted Jasmine to talk to Aladdin when they would be just the two of them. She looked just a little embarrassed and that could have been told from the look on her face. She kept staring at Aladdin, almost forgetting that he had asked a question.

"Look. Just talk to Jasmine about it." She finally answered back. She felt like she had said enough and wanted to fix things, at least try to. She decided that the rest of the conversation would be between the married couple, the _rulers _of the land. She hoped Aladdin understood it from her answer and the tone she has gave him.

But Aladdin did not. He just wanted to be on a track of things so he could understand her wife better and help his people.

"But you know why she doesn't want to send me, don't you?" He asked. He did not want to be unknown of the situation his wife was going but to be on her side. For better or for worse, wasn't that right?

Dalia kept her mind about not meddling in again. "I do, but Jasmine should be the one telling."

"Why? You literally told about the whole thing yourself." Aladdin was now getting heated.

Dalia felt like she needed to snap back.

"I'm just so sensitive about the war because I had this dream to raise my kid in a _safe _environment, okay?" It was something she had not said to anyone yet. Expect her husband. Aladdin could have respected her more if he knew.

Aladdin made the furious look disappear from his face. He dropped his eyes from Dalia's gaze.

Couple of seconds there were a deep silence on the table when Aladdin finally speak out as he rose his chin to look towards Dalia again.

"I know I may not have the best..." he gave a quick look on the Hamed's side "Possible skills like Ja-"

He was cut short, before he could say his beloveds name fully when Dalia spoke with a loud voice, deep sight following it "Oh, Aladdin, please. It's not that."

Aladdin locked eyes with his female friend. "Then what is it?"

"Just talk to her, please." Dalia sighted.

There was a moment of silence again, not a long.

"Okay."

* * *

**Chapter three, everyone! I feel like this one has the most typos, I apologize.**

**I read that The Sultan's name is Hamed, so I'll use that from now. And of course, when I use "Jasmine's Father" and "the former Sultan" I mean him. You got it, I know. Also, I didn't really know if to give The Genie a name now that he isn't _a genie_ anymore. I feel like he should have a name, but I really didn't come up with a good one so I left it like that. **

**I feel like my story is set to a place where Dalia would be expecting her first born, Lian. All who watched the live action are familiar with her. **

**Thank you for the beautiful rewievs, they truly warm up my heart. Thank you! Keep them coming and make sure to follow and/or to favorite my story to stay tuned for upcoming updates. I appreciate them!**


	4. Chapter 4

It was 1pm. That time they usually had lunch at the palace but also at the streets. Everyone got hungry at noon when the sun was the hottest and the works of the morning had been done. At the palace lunch would be soon served in the gardens.

Aladdin was looking for his wife. He wanted to have lunch with her as usually, but also speak to her. He wanted to let her know he was on her side. And also, to know her motives and what she wanted for the future. In the terms of the war.

He was walking along a long aisle of the palace on his way to his and Jasmine's bedroom. He had not seen her since the meeting and figured out she could have gone and get some rest after it. As he opened the giant door he walked in and pushed it close behind him.

"Jasmine?" He called.

No callbacks.

He walked to the balcony. On the way to the doors to the balcony you could have scanned the whole room. No sight of Jasmine. And not even Rajah, her loyal pet tiger. Where was Rajah anyway? He hadn't seen him at all today. Usually he followed Jasmine everywhere.

He signed and decided to go look for her somewhere else, since she clearly hadn't come to their bedroom.

He took a few stares down and entered the west side of the palace. The palace was that big that I had sides for each compass point. It was that great any commoner could think of a palace. People could easily get lost to the big palace with golden doors and golden walls with expensive paintings on them. Aladdin gladly had some experience on moving in big places that seemed like labyrinths as he had spent his whole life in the streets of Agrabah.

He decided to go and check her study room. The study room was the other room where she spent a lot of time. At least on the days like this and on the times like now. He had once in a late night even caught her sleeping on her desk. He had then waited for her for so long and she just didn't show up, so he went looking for her. Turned out she had been late from a meeting and therefor needed to catch up on what they went through at the beginning of the meeting. He had just gotten her awake and walked her to their bed where she had fallen asleep just at the moment when she had placed her head to the pillow.

When Aladdin finally had reached the doors of the study room, he rose his hands to open the heavy door. He looked inside, just a little to see Jasmine sitting at her desk. She was clearly focused on something as she didn't even notice the door opening. She had changed to something more royal then what she had been wearing in the morning. Her hair was on a simple ponytail, which she had probably done herself. Rajah was laying on the left side of the desk, he rose his head when he noticed Aladdin's presence.

Aladdin smiled and walked in. He quietly closed the door behind him, as he didn't want to interrupt Jasmine's focus on the paper she was writing on and walked closer to her. Even when he was a few meters from her, she still didn't rise her eyes from the papers.

Not until Aladdin had took a seat on Jasmine's right side on the desk did Jasmine notice him.

She jumped a little when she noticed that a strange figure had joined her on the desk, placed her free hand on her chest and looked up to see Aladdin's smiling face. Not that strange figure, after all.

"Aladdin!" she said surprised "Could you give it a knock or something before entering?" she couldn't squash the little laughing tone she had on her question as she wasn't even mad at him surprising her. She was actually happy to see him. Those men and women she usually had meetings with weren't that much fun a company as Aladdin was and being alone for only a while at her study room had turned to be a little lonely. Darn how he had changed her life. She had felt lonely for the most of her life but never accepted to _miss _someone so badly. There was a difference in being lonely and missing someone.

"I'm sorry, Your Highness." he smiled just a little and his voice was jokingly.

Jasmine let out a little laugh and looked up smiling to her husband.

"I came to ask if you wanted to have lunch." he said.

"Yeah sure, let me just finish this letter." Jasmine's face brightened up and as she smiled at her husband for the last time before getting back on her letter.

Aladdin watched for a while as her hands danced on the white paper. Her handwriting was so pretty. He stayed like this for a moment before bringing back the topic they talked about at breakfast.

"I also hoped we could have talked about what happened in the morning." he said quietly, still only watching her writing the letter. Her hands did slow down only a little bit when she noticed he hadn't only come to take her to lunch. Sure, she sensed that he would eventually wanted to talk about it, but she hadn't had time to prepare herself to answer the questions.

"And what about it?" she asked back, not rising her look or stopping the slowed down writing.

Aladdin rolled his eyes but kept his voice serious and tried to sound like someone who really wanted to have her attention. "You know what about it, Jas."

Jasmine didn't stop writing or rise her eyes from the letter. She just stayed silence. For a moment, Aladdin took his eyes away from Jasmine to look at the wall opposite him. He waited if Jasmine was going to speak up or if she had finished the letter. But a moment passed. A minute. Or two. Aladdin had waited for long enough and wanted to speak up. He turned his head on Jasmine's way.

"I could do it. I know I may not have the skills like you, or your father have but I-"

"Oh, Aladdin," she finally quickly rose her view from her paper to Aladdin's face to cut his sentence. She placed her free hand to rest on his thigh. "Honey, it has nothing to do with your skills. You have been so amazing with all the royal stuff and so dedicated. All the books you have read about ruling..."

"That's because I enjoy reading." he cut her off "And it's something I wasn't able to do until now."

Aladdin was lucky to even know how to read. It was rare that orphans learned how to read. He was still a slow reader and had to read some sentences multiple times to understand them, but it was something he enjoyed and was happy to finally be able to do.

"In any ways, I'm so lucky to have just you by my side." Jasmine smoothed his thigh.

Aladdin gave her a small smile. "Then what is it?" he asked quietly.

The smile Jasmine had had on her face was now gone. As she removed her hand from his thigh and turned away placing her pen on the desk. She sighted and turned back to look at Aladdin.

"Please tell me." he whispered and offered his hands for her to take.

And she did.

She just enjoyed the gentle touch of Aladdin's on her skin for a moment. It was time to tell him. It would help Jasmine too if it was their shared worry.

She still hadn't turned to look at Aladdin. She preferred looking at his hands joined with his.

"I'm afraid they'll hurt you."

The voice was almost a whisper, but she knew he had heard her as he squeezed her hands a little bit harder.

"What makes you think like it?" his voice was not too loud either, he had answered the tone.

She finally looked up to meet his handsome face. It was full of confusion and admire. But she answered it with a sharp gaze.

"They have literally decorated war on us, Aladdin. It's not like they are inviting you over to a tea party!" She freed her hands from Aladdin's and rose up to walk around the room. She crossed her hands on her chest, breathing heavily.

Aladdin stood up to follow her movements. He didn't rush, he waited for a moment until Jasmine turned to face his side again.

"I know. But there is a space between a murder and a tea party."

She stayed still, her body facing Aladdin. There was a space between them, maybe a meter or two. She kept her hands locked with each other as she held on to her elbows with her hands. She looked at Aladdin, precisely observing his face with her own eyes. It didn't tell much. Did he agree with her? Had Dalia told her anything else than that she had been hiding the letter?

"Did Dalia tell you... Something else?" her eyes became smaller. Like she was suspecting something.

"Nothing you didn't already hear."

Jasmine nodded at him. He walked closer. Jasmine kept her eyes on Aladdin's face. He took her hands from her chest. Jasmine didn't fight back. She melted, removed the space between them as she leaned to rest her head on his chest. He moved one hand behind her waist and kept the other one in her hand.

They stayed like this for several seconds. Jasmine having her eyes closed, leaning on the soft chest of his. Aladdin drew circles on her back like he had done so many times. When they woke up in the mornings, when they were just the two of them watching down to the sunset on the balcony in the evenings and when they were falling asleep on each other's arms at nights. He didn't ask anything, not why she had needed his touch right now or that what she was feeling. Or even a clearer answer to his previous question. He did not mind staying like this. He enjoyed it just like Jasmine. They were here to hold each other, to lift each other up when something dragged them down. Aladdin sighted. Jasmine didn't move a bit. They just stayed like this for several seconds. And still stayed when Jasmine spoke up.

"I'm sorry for not telling you about the letter."

She kept her eyes closed. Waited for him to answer.

"You don't need to apologist."

It was something what Aladdin would totally say. To him his wife was perfect. To him it seemed like she didn't make any mistakes at all. But all the humans made mistakes. Maybe Aladdin was too blind of love to notice it. But obviously he wasn't that naïve to think that all the problems in Agrabah would instantly be solved since Jasmine was the ruler now.

Jasmine rose her head so she could look at Aladdin but still rested her head on her chest. She looked to Aladdin's face with her sparkling eyes.

"But can you tell me why you don't want to send me?"

"I already told you. They are threatening us with a war. I feel like it's a trap."

Aladdin rose his eyebrows. "What trap?"

"They don't want peace, they want war, they want to get rid of us."

She didn't need to explain more details since Aladdin understood it. He nodded a little. He didn't even know himself if it was a "yes" or a "maybe". He didn't care to believe in that kind of a technic, it was not practical, not something royals would do, even Aladdin knew that. But it was indeed true. If they got rid of them one by one it would be easy. His stomach ached to the idea. But as he looked at his wife's eyes, he could tell there was something else she was thinking about. She had this strange, unusual spark in her eyes. Her eyes always looked honest, they did not now. It was something Aladdin didn't see quite often. She was always being honest and trustworthy and that was one of the reasons why so many loved her.

Aladdin looked at her. "That's all?"

Jasmine drove her eyes away from Aladdin. That's when she knew she revealed herself.

"It's not all." He whispered.

And it was not all. She was afraid they will hurt _him _because of his background. Different from the other princes. Not royal. She didn't dare to told him. How could she after everything they had talked about and so many kind thoughts about him being good enough and always believing in him. She shook her head gently.

"I don't want to tell you." she told eyes closed.

She didn't want Aladdin to think that he should be royal by blood when he so did not have to. She didn't think that. She was happy that he wasn't royal. Oh, how happy she was that she didn't have to marry any of those useless princes. So happy that she was able to marry Aladdin, the only man in her life who deserved the title of a prince. But in the ideal world titles would not mean anything and everyone would treat each other on the telling of their hearts. However, this was reality. There was always going to be some people coming back to Aladdin about his past. About stealing, only to survive.

She freed herself from Aladdin's gentle touch and walked a meter or two back. She didn't want to face him. They had promised to tell each other everything as their relationship had started out from lies – she told him she was the princess's handmaiden and he told her he was a prince. They haven't lied to each other ever since. They released that they both deserved better. And it was something married couples did – shared everything. That is why Jasmine needed to get away from his arms for only a moment. The shame drove her away. She was back facing to him. But it didn't take long for Aladdin to follow her. He walked close to her. So close to her. Jasmine felt his breathing on her hair. A smooth hand was founded on Jasmine's hip. The hand spun her slowly around and she was again face to face with Aladdin. She didn't look up. But Aladdin, he rose his hand to rest on her cheek. She didn't mind him touching her again, leaned to his touch on her skin, and breathed heavily. She finally looked to Aladdin's eyes as she slowly turned her eyes to investigate Aladdin's.

"Love, you can tell me anything, even if it was something I don't want to hear."

She quickly shook her head on the gentle touch of his. Her lip started to tremble.

She felt bad, so bad. But she wanted to be loyal, even if it meant telling him something that would bite a bit of her heart. She leaned to the touch again as she sighted heavily. She felt a lump on her throat as she fought back the tears.

Aladdin looked at her face and tried to get to know what made her so upset.

"Tell me."

She took a breath. She needed to tell him. "Just admit it, Jasmine." she told herself in her head.

"I'm afraid they'll hurt you," she once again pulled the tears away, "if they are not afraid of doing that since you are not born royal." her voice was so close to a cry.

After a while, she noticed the change in Aladdin's eyes. There was no joy, there was hurt. She knew that she had hurt him. She gasped.

"I'm sorry." she was now crying as the first tear slipped away from her eye and rolled down her cheek.

She quickly started to explain herself "I didn't mean to make you feel like you should be. Because you shouldn't, I love you, I don't care-"

"Jasmine, you don't need to explain, I get it."

Jasmine took Aladdin's hand from her cheek to hold on to. She drove her fingers with his before locking them together.

"But you're hurt." she looked at hers and his hands joined.

Aladdin shook his head even though Jasmine didn't look the way. "I'm not hurt."

Jasmine raised her eyes up. She looked surprised, confused.

"But you look like it." only a whisper.

"It's just going to get some time to get used to that I may not have something to offer to your kingdom that some... Others would."

But how long it would take? It had been 8 moths since they got married and even before that people knew him as Sultana's fiancé. He clearly had known what his life was going to be alike. He had married a royal by blood, it changed his life, position and the way people treated him. But he would not do anything differently if Jasmine was by his side. He chooses her, not the royal blood.

Jasmine's gaze melted, now was her time to look hurt. Had she really made him think like that. She was so disappointed at herself.

"Please don't say that Aladdin." she said gently and shook her head.

"You have so much to offer to the people of Agrabah. So much more than any of those overdressed self-absorbed princes I met before you came to my life. You actually know the people, care for them, and have a heart for them." Jasmine let out a quiet laugh. "And you believed in me as a leader. No one did before you. The moment we met, I knew that you were that kind of a person who would support me no matter what. And that is one of the many reasons why I love you. And why I chose to be and to rule with you and no one else. Believe me when I say no one could take the place you have filled in my life. Please don't think like you're not enough for _our _people because you are."

"Then let me do this for them."

He wanted to show Jasmine he could be able to do this, that he was not afraid of sacrificing himself for her people. And it was not just Jasmine. He wanted to be able to do things without the fear of not being enough.

Jasmine quietly breathed as she took Aladdin's hands and drove them around her waist. Aladdin tightened the grip she had made him to take. Jasmine rested her hands with Aladdin's as they were locked together behind her back. Aladdin kept looking at Jasmine's face that had its gaze on the ground.

She slowly turned to see Aladdin's face. Her eyes were still watery but not reddish.

"Okay." she said so quietly. Her voice cracked a little when she said this. She had to let him do this. It was better this way to everyone, to her and her people. Even if she was scared. She knew she had to get over it.

Aladdin's lips turned into a small smile but before he could have said or even do anything else Jasmine felt a need to tell him something really important,

"But if you won't return to me, I will never forgive myself." her voice was a half cry, half whisper and somehow a threat too.

Aladdin leaned down to pull her into a deep hug. He wrapped both his arms around Jasmine's back and as he lifted her a little bit up, she rose on her tiptoes and wrapped her arms around Aladdin's neck.

"I promise I will. Don't worry. I promise." He breathed on her shoulder and closed his eyes.

Aladdin felt Jasmine nodding against his shoulder.

Even when they pulled apart, they still kept so close that Jasmine rested her hands at Aladdin's chest.

"I was going to talk to you about the letter later this morning. In private. But I guess Dalia had to embrace me in front of everyone." Jasmine let out a quiet laugh. Which Aladdin joined just a little bit.

"I don't think you embraced yourself."

"Well, I could have told Baba and asked his help." Jasmine looked at the ground.

Aladdin rested his forehead on Jasmine's for a moment while answering quietly, "Maybe."

Jasmine leaned on the touch a little bit before it was gone once again.

"I don't even know why Dalia was being do sensitive about it."

"She did say something after you were gone."

"Yes?" Jasmine looked at Aladdin with curious eyes.

"She said she wanted to raise her child in a safe environment, in a safe Agrabah."

Jasmine could help a little smile that came to her face. She rose her eyebrows. The time Dalia had been gone, traveling around the Mediterranean with her new husband had been a little bit hard for her. Dalia had been in her life since forever. It had felt different without her. Luckily, she had her Baba, Rajah and of course Aladdin so she couldn't have said that she had felt lonely or sad. The opposite, she was the happiest now that she was married to the man of her dreams, had better terms with her father and was able to go outside the palace. But what came to Dalia, she had just simply missed her human best friend.

"She did?"

"Yes, but I don't really know much about it." Aladdin rolled her eyes.

Jasmine laughed at him. She rose on her tiptoes and kissed him softly. Her hands from her chest moved to his cheeks as she felt the grip around her waist tightening. When they needed to pull away for air, she let her hands rest around his neck. They kept their faces close.

"I'm sorry I snapped earlier. I-" Jasmine started but was interrupted when Aladdin opened his month to say something, so she placed her finger on his lip. "Let me finish."

"I panicked. I know letting you go was the only way, but I let my fear of them hurting you while we are apart come on the way of it. I wouldn't trust anyone else more to handle the situation then you."

Jasmine smiled up to Aladdin, but he didn't return the smile. Slowly Jasmine's smile also started to fade.

"What if I can't do it?" he said, quietly. His hand shook a little bit behind Jasmine's back.

She cupped at his cheek and let him lean on the touch for a moment before returning it behind his neck.

"Sure, you can. I'll tell you everything you need to know. That I trust you is not enough, you need to trust in yourself too." a smile was back on her face, only a little one so he could still tell that she meant every word. "But situations like this one are always tough. Even leaders with the experience like Baba's can't sometimes solve them. I want you to know that even if the king does not agree on peace no one will be disappointed at you. I know you will be doing the best you can. We all do."

Aladdin nodded.

"Thank you." he said carefully. Did he deserve all this joy, kindness and support Jasmine bought him? He didn't know what on earth he had ever done so right to get her as the person to build life with.

Jasmine bought her lips so close to his and whispered, "My pleasure." She gave a quick kiss on her husband's lips and then looked at his eyes.

If she was being honest, she wanted a better answer then _thank you. _She wanted him to tell her that he understood and that he wouldn't question himself again. But since it didn't happen today, she knew that they'd have this conversation again. But for now, she let him focus on the idea of him going to Babauta, focus on the words she had just said to him and let him get his thoughts together.

Remembering the other subject he even was here, she picked up a completely different conversation.

"Shall I have my lunch now?" she asked.

Aladdin laughed, spun her around that she was now facing the doorway and lead her out of the room from her waist. Jasmine leaned on his touch and joined the laugh.

* * *

**Chapter four! My favorite chapter so far and the chapter I'm the most proud of. Please let me know what you thaught. **

**I'm glad to hear that the thing I imagined Jasmine to feel about Aladdin going to Babauta has been outspeared through the words. Thank you for all the beautiful comments you have left me! They are truly a delight. **

**I'm going away from home again for a week, so the next chapter will not be there until week 32. I'm sorry, be patience! I feel like this is a perfect place to keep a break since it's the most well written chapter of mine (in my opinion) and we saw Aladdin and Jasmine made up, so we know what is going to happen next - Aladdin is going to Babauta. **

**While I'm gone you can go and read my Aladdin x Jasmine one shot "Loved Leader" I wrote about a month ago if you'd like. You can find it from my profile, it has almost 1k hits, can we get it to that before I come back?**

**Thank you for reading my story. I truly appriecate it! Until next time.**


	5. Chapter 5

After lunch, Jasmine went to find her friend. She felt like she needed to apologize for snapping at her and being cold and tell her that Aladdin and she had agreed on sending him to Babauta, so she wouldn't need to worry about that anymore. She had another meeting shortly, but she had a little time before that. Aladdin had gone to the marketplace with Abu just as Jasmine had asked for. Jasmine weren't sure how long they would spend there. Especially Abu sometimes liked to get out of the palace, meet some other people and play around like the old times. Aladdin didn't mind staying at the palace, but he sometimes liked to get some _fresh air_.

Usually this time at the day Dalia was with Jasmine. She would braid or bend her hair, make up her and other stuff like that, so that she would look her best on the rest of the day's royal tasks.

Jasmine wondered in the palace, trying to decide where to look for Dalia. She could be anywhere since she was not with Jasmine.

Rajah walked right behind her. They stopped on the gates of the royal garden.

"What do think Rajah, is Dalia at the garden?" Jasmine asked her animal best friend looking at his fierce eyes, not waiting for an answer back. However, Rajah let out a little growl.

Jasmine walked deeper to the gardens. She passed her name flowers Jasmines, cactuses, orchids, roses... all kinds of flowers that blossomed at the garden. It was that time of the year when the flowers blossomed. The garden looked very beautiful; it was even relaxing only walking around there. She walked pass the water fountain and entered to the garden's small table. There they sometimes would have lunch. Right near there was Dalia watering the flowers behind her.

"Dalia!" Jasmine called out her, smiling.

Dalia turned out slowly, placed the water cannon down and answered her friend.

"Hello, Your Majesty." she said. Jasmine rolled her eyes on her.

"Can we sit down, have a little chat?" Jasmine pointed out the way on the table right next to them.

Dalia nodded. She, too, wanted to break this foolish ice between them that was created this morning. She followed as Jasmine sat on the chair and took a seat right in front of her. Rajah took a seat next to Dalia, craving for some strokes. Dalia smiled at the tiger and run her fingers on his thick fur. The girls sit on a silence for a while before Jasmine spoke up.

"I'm sorry for earlier, you were right. I should have just talked to him sooner." Jasmine looked for Dalia's eyes.

Dalia rose her eyes from Rajah, "You don't need to apologise. I was the one who meddled in your personal business. I'm sorry."

"It's alright, I know now why."

Dalia rose her eyebrows at her best friend with an asking look.

Jasmine answered her with a respectful look, "Aladdin told me."

Dalia understood now, mumbled a little "oh" and moved her eyes from Jasmine's. "Looks like I'm not the only gossip girl around here." she sighed, with a mischievous smile.

"Don't blame him. I was the one who asked."

"Relax, I'm just kidding." Dalia said with a little laugh.

Jasmine answered the laugh just a little before looking at her hands. Dalia seemed to be looking around for something.

"Where is he anyway?" Dalia asked.

Jasmine rose her head back up. "He went to the marketplace with Abu."

Dalia answered with a nod and now looked away. Jasmine kept her eyes on Dalia.

"Do you really want to raise your kid here in Agrabah? I taught you wanted to get back to traveling." Jasmine answered still looking at her with preoccupied eyes.

Dalia smiled, "I indeed wanted to raise my child here. But I do want to get back to the seas. So maybe a year, or two and when the baby is old enough, we would get back to traveling."

Jasmine nodded with a smile. Taught of Dalia staying here, with her, with a little baby around for even a year sounded good for her. She had really been missing her.

"That sounds wonderful for me."

"But raising her or him around a war does not sound wonderful. That's why I want all to turn out alright." Dalia said with corner. Her hand rested on her round tummy.

"Yeah, I know." Jasmine's answer was only a sigh, but she continued, "And that is why I agreed on Aladdin going to Babauta. We talked and I know it's the only way, the right way. He is leaving in two days." she told her friend.

Dalia smiled at her and nodded her proudly. Nevertheless, she couldn't help noticing the worry on her eyes.

"Don't worry. He will be fine."

"I hope you're right."

"Of course, I am. Who would possibly want to harm that handsome face of his?" Dalia said with a joking tone.

Jasmine joined the laugh before hearing a man's voice behind her. She jumped a little bit and turned around.

"Careful, can't say things like that in front of your husband. But I can't deny, that face of that kid's... it's bloody fine." Genie sighted, tried to make it seem like he was envy, but he was only joking.

The ladies laughed at him as he joined their company and took a seat next to his wife. Jasmine looked at the ground, laughing and shook her head to her favourite couple joking about her husband's handsomeness. The Genie joined his and Dalia's hands together and Dalia looked at him with loving eyes. All three of them – four, including Rajah – sat on the garden.

"So, is the kid going to Babauta?" the Genie asked, looked at Jasmine's direction.

Jasmine slowly nodded, "Yes, we talked and... I agreed that it's for the best if he goes. He is leaving in two days with Hakim and some palace guards."

Jasmine was glad she had been able to talk Hakim into going to the journey. He was their most trusted soldier of Agrabah and she trusted him to make sure Aladdin was safe. Aladdin hadn't gone into any trips like this before and Hakim had the experience. They would make a good team. Moreover, they even already had. As months passed, they were now able to leave almost all the problems with them behind, times when Aladdin teased the palace guards and stole to eat. Now the two of them actually got along pretty well after first struggles. Hakim had even taught Aladdin some fighting skills.

Genie nodded at Jasmine. "He's going to do just fine."

Jasmine again just nodded, forcing a little smile to her male friend.

After a while, Dalia spoke up, "Shall we do something to that hair of yours?"

"It looks fine; I can do my own hair!" Jasmine gasped.

"It looks _messy_." Dalia said, jokingly. Dalia knew how Jasmine's hair looked like when she had made it herself. Jasmine was not bad with her hair but either not as good as Dalia was. Her hair didn't look bad – but it could have looked better. Two of them had always liked playing with her long, massive hair and managed to make it look the best possible way.

Jasmine laughed at Dalia as she stood up to get a hairbrush.

* * *

**I'm back with chapter 5, I hope you liked it. **

**Trustworthy is really flopping what comes the views. The first chapter got 500+ views and the rest haven't gotten even 200. I'm sad :( This is the best I can do. Maybe my talent isn't enough. Please let me know if you're enjoying the story so far. And please let me know if I do some grammar mistakes or there is a problem in my spelling so I can fix them. **

**Thank you for reading. A special thank you for all the beautiful rewievs. I appriacate. **


	6. Chapter 6

_The ocean was clear and bright. The water was seen for miles from the beach. It was clearly an ocean, not a lake, not a river. An ocean. And it was a similar one. It was __Agrabah's__ ocean and its light green mixed with blue waves made a relaxing sound as they flushed on the quiet beach with beige, almost white warm sand. Jasmine floated on the water. Her toes didn't reach out the ground, but it was not needed, the water carried her. Her body mixed with the warm water and it almost felt like a gentle touch on her almost naked body. She took a breath, dived to the ocean as she didn't even bother to close her eyes since the water was so clean. As she dove, she saw some movements, little fishes, she smiled on the water, carefully not opening her mouth. When she reached the top, she rubbed her face and eyes. The salt burned on her eyes – in a good way. She tried to get used to the burning feeling._

_The sun made the ocean look so much more enchanting, it made it look like magic. The clear blue sky hit the horizon and it looked like a painting. And the feeling that it bought to Jasmine, the warmth, the sunlight on her skin, the feeling of the water on her skin was out of reach. She felt so relaxed, so safe. _

_Th waves carried her body as she continued swimming with slow pulls. She didn't need much power to pull herself further on the water, but she felt herself so strong, like she could face any threat, any storm right now. _

"_Jasmine?"_

_She heard a familiar male voice and moaned a little "hm" back. _

"_Jasmine." he called her again._

_Jasmine started to look around. No one was seen, only the light green mix blue ocean, the sun, the beach. There was no one, even not on the beach. She started to feel more percent as the warmth and the relaxing feeling what the water had bought her started to slowly fade away. Slowly her tiptoes touched the ground of the ocean as the water didn't carry her anymore._

"_Wake up, love."_

As she opened her eyes the sun dazzled on her eyes. But it was not the same sun she had seen in her eyes just a couple of seconds ago, that sun that shined on her eyes now bought her back to reality. It bought her back from her dream, to her room, to her palace. She was laying on a familiar bed she had fallen asleep last night and so many nights before. As she got slowly more and more away from her dream, she realised that the voice calling her belonged to Aladdin and he was trying to get her awake.

The sun was not high on the sky, which meant that it had barely even rose. However, it had already, and you could fell it on your eyes and on your skin. It was probably not even six in the morning. The sky was a mix between light blue and yellow.

Jasmine needed to blink her eyes for a couple of times more before she was able to see the face lucid that was in front of her. As her eyes started to get used to the light of the room, she recognized the face close to hers, it belonged to Aladdin as well as the voice in her dream. Jasmine smiled at him as she felt his finger smooth her forehead and hair. He smiled back at her. She was still dreamy. Aladdin was kneeled beside their bed on the ground on her side. He looked as handsome as always, he was not wearing a shirt yet and his perfectly build bare chest shined on the sunlight, which made Jasmine dizzy. He didn't look sleepy at all and he was not even at bed anymore. Speaking the truth, he had been awake for at least two hours, nervousness had kept him awake.

"Good morning. Did you sleep well?" he asked her.

Jasmine's cheek was still resting on the pillow, but she moved her hands a little bit to rise herself up a little, just to see her husband's face a bit better. She moaned a little bit as she moved her tired body, but the smile never left her face as she locked eyes with Aladdin. And either did Aladdin's.

"Good morning. I did. I had a lovely dream." she told him remembering the strong, relaxed feeling the dream had bought her. Her floating on the ocean, in the light green-blue coloured waves as the sun burned on her skin making her feel so safe and warm, it made her feel like home as in Agrabah the sun was always awake, and the warmth was tangible.

"I'm glad to hear." he told her, smiling. He continued "And I'm sorry to wake you up. I'm leaving in half an hour if you want to come say goodbye."

Jasmine smile fated slowly. Two days had passed since they had decided to send Aladdin to Babauta. The past two days they had been going through all that is necessary for Aladdin to know before he enters to Babauta. Aladdin had probably yet never spent so much time at Jasmine's study room. He had read every letter they had sent them, and Jasmine told him everything he needed to know. The backstory they had, the military alliances the kingdom of Babauta had and so on. He had really put all his energy to this, trying his best. Jasmine couldn't be prouder. She trusted him to handle this. And Aladdin felt prepared too, but he was still nervous. He had never done anything like this before. But he gladly would try his best this time, even if he was a little nervous because it helped Agrabah's people and Jasmine, so how could he do anything else.

Aladdin didn't get an answer back, he just noticed the change on her face and the little saddens. So, he continued "Dalia will be here in five minutes."

Jasmine raised her eyebrows "Did you call her?"

"No. She passed by a while ago when you were still sleeping. I said I'll wake you and to come back in ten minutes."

Jasmine nodded against on the pillow and closed her eyes for a moment. She felt that the touch of the fingers on her forehead started to fade away and quickly rose her hand to grab his hand on hers. She pulled it back as Aladdin had already gotten up on his feet.

"Come to bed with me, please." she asked him, looking at his face above her.

Aladdin sighted, they should really get dressed and he had to get ready to leave, but he didn't deny, he wanted to join her for only a moment. He squeezed her hand. "Fine. But only for a minute."

Jasmine smiled as she guided him to sit beside her. She made room for him as he sat down on the edge of their large bed, back resting on the back of the bed. Jasmine stayed laying down and moved her head to rest on Aladdin's tights. She looked right at him as he also did. Jasmine locked her hand with Aladdin's and his other hand was smoothing her hair resting on his tights and on the sheets. They enjoyed each other's touches.

"I'm going to miss you." Jasmine told him. Aladdin was going to stay at least two weeks at Babauta since the trip itself was four days long.

"Me too." he looked at her sad eyes. "Have you noticed that we have been apart like only for a day since we first met?"

Jasmine looked at him with admire. That was indeed true. That made total almost two years (almost) every day with him. Aladdin had lived in the palace when they were engaged and the only time day didn't see each other for a day was back after their second meeting, to the third. They had been engaged before marriage for almost a year and married for a year now. Back then they had decided that they will have her coronation before the wedding. And they were glad they did it like that, they had time to get to know each other even better and Jasmine could have focused on becoming a good Sultana for her people. Four months after the coronation, they had their dream day. They were so happy to be even an engaged couple, but when they had finally gotten married, they experienced a real happiness. It was a happiness neither of them could ever before imagine. Sharing life with each other was a _gift _to the both of them. Jasmine smiled at the idea of spending a lifetime with him but laughed at the next thing she was going to say.

"How will I manage two weeks away from you?" she said with a light voice.

"You'll do fine. But I don't know about myself." he laughed.

Jasmine looked at her fingers crossed with his and moved her thumb to smooth the skin on his hands.

"Aladdin, I want you to know," she started, moved her eyes back to Aladdin's face. He looked focused, tried to read every quality she changed on her face "if the king does not agree on peace it is not your fault. No one will blame you."

"You have already told that to me, Jas. Couple of times. I understand." he smiled shyly down to her.

"You promise?" she asked. She _had _to get it in his head.

"I promise."

Jasmine smiled at him lightly. "And please come home intact."

"I will. And that is a promise too. Two weeks and then you can worry, okay?" He smoothed her cheek and she leaned on the touch, nodded against it. "Okay." Eyes closed, a light smile on her face.

They had together made a promise that Jasmine wouldn't worry about her beloved, not if he wasn't back home in two weeks. She was still scared about sending him, but she had her friends Dalia and the Genie, her Baba and of course Rajah with her, to support her and possibly lift her back on her feet if it was needed while Aladdin was gone. Jasmine also had many royal tasks to fill while he was gone, and she decided to finally visit the marketplace and the people of Agrabah. She would have a lot going on to distract her mind away if she thought about Aladdin's security too much.

There was a knock on the door that shook her away from the trance. Aladdin gently moved Jasmine's head from his thighs to the softest sheets of their bed and got up to open the door. Jasmine was still laying on the bed, she didn't care to get up. She looked at the doorway her husband had gone to open the door. She heard a light voice, a woman's voice. The present walked deeper to the room. It was Dalia as they had prepared for it to be her.

"I taught you would wake her up, pretty boy." She said as she turned to look back to Aladdin. He still didn't have a shirt on, which made Dalia use just that nickname.

"She is awake. And she is all yours." Aladdin smiled to Dalia, then to the other lady of the room, Jasmine, and she smiled him back. Aladdin made his way to the wardrobe.

Dalia walked next to Jasmine's bed.

"Rise and shine, Sultana."

Jasmine smiled sleepily to Dalia who had come to stand next to her bed. They needed to get her ready before Aladdin would leave. Aladdin and five royal guard plus Hakim would leave in less than half an hour. They would get horses to Agrabah's northern harbour, which was quite far away, and then take a ship to Babauta. Jasmine would not have time to say goodbye on the harbour since she had some task to fill, so she'd say bye on the gates. She'd have a little bit time after to put on some makeup but not for the whole dress fitting so she would quickly have to get up.

"You're right." she yawned once more, which made Dalia giggle a little bit. The Sultana was always in a good shape, ready for anything. You didn't she her much like this, apart from Aladdin.

Jasmine rose on her feet a little bit too fast and tried to balance as she followed Dalia to her wardrobe.

* * *

For today's dress, Dalia and Jasmine had picked a light purple shoulder free dress with a cloth to cover her shoulders. It also covered her whole chest area. The waistline was a bit higher than it was on the dresses and pants she usually wore. The purple dress was heavy on its downer section. She also wore golden high heels and golden jewelleries, which completed her royal look. With this dress, she walked to the gates of the palace where horses were ready to leave. Two of the guards were already on horseback as three others including Hakim loaded the horses' saddles with back bags and stuff they needed with them. Aladdin walked hand in hand with Jasmine as her father, Dalia and Genie followed them behind as they also had come to say goodbye and wish all the best for the trip.

They stopped to the gate where Hakim bought Aladdin's horse to stand. The horse stayed still as he had been taught. Aladdin thanked Hakim politely for bringing the horse and getting him ready to live.

Aladdin turned to look at Jasmine who tried her best to make a smile for him. He probably would say bye to her lastly, so he turned to look at the Genie. Aladdin through his arms around him and they shared _a best friend hug._

"Take care, kid. Have a safe trip."

"I will, thank you."

They pulled apart and the Genie clapped on his shoulder for one last time. They smiled at each other as Aladdin turned to Dalia. She was actually the first one craving for a hug as she buried her head on his chest, almost like Jasmine always does. Aladdin rubbed her back.

"I'll miss you." she said.

"Me too. Take care of yourself, okay? And that little on." after pulling away from the hug Aladdin smoothed Dalia's round belly. She placed her hands-on top of his, nodded and smiled at him.

"I trust you, my son." he heard Hamed saying. As he turned to look at him, Aladdin gently took his hand he had offered him to take and shocked it with both hands

"I promise I will do the best I can."

"I know you will."

As Aladdin turned back to Jasmine, she seemed even sadder then she had been only a minute ago, arms now crossed on her chest.

"You make it seem like he is going away for good."

Aladdin laughed a little bit and pulled Jasmine into a hug. He placed his cheek on top of her hair as Jasmine buried her head on his chest. She closed her eyes. They stayed at this position, enjoying the final touches they would share in two weeks.

"We are ready to leave, prince." Hakim called out.

Aladdin sighted, moved his head away from the top of Jasmine's head and answered something back to Hakim. Jasmine didn't hear because she didn't care about the world around them. She wanted to focus only on Aladdin.

Aladdin needed to push her back from his chest. They locked eyes for a moment before they drove their lips together. Jasmine moved her hands behind Aladdin's back, around his neck and with her other hand smoothed his hair. The kiss was gentle but full of admire, they still cared about their non-existing privacy.

When they pulled away from the kiss, they stared at each other with admire, with respect. Jasmine felt a need to smooth her finger across his cheek and so did she.

Aladdin was the first one to speak, "I got to go. I love you."

"I love you too." she pulled away the tears, not allowing letting them fall.

Aladdin let out a shy laugh as he rested his forehead on hers, "Don't cry, Jasmine. We'll see each other in two weeks, okay?"

Jasmine nodded against the touch on her forehead. "I'm still scared of you going." It came out as a whisper.

"Don't be." he didn't know what else to tell her. He had the best guards of all Agrabah with him, but he couldn't promise anything he wasn't sure that wouldn't happen. Babauta was not a safe country for a prince from Agrabah to travel but he would do his best to come back home in one piece. He had to; he had made a promise.

Aladdin started to pull away from Jasmine as he needed to get on his horse. The others were already ready, just waiting for Aladdin to join them. But the royal guards didn't rush him, they knew how important he was to their new Sultana, so they respected the time they needed to share.

"One more kiss." Jasmine said. She pulled Aladdin back as her lips were on his again. She cupped his cheek as she moved her lips slowly on Aladdin's. As they pulled away Aladdin took steps back, turned around as he walked to his horse hand in hand with Jasmine. Aladdin got on his white, gorgeous horse and looked down to Jasmine again. She took his hand one last time and placed a kiss on his palm.

"I'll do the best I can, I promise. I love you."

"I love you too." she managed to say even though the tears tried to pull her voice back to her throat. She looked at his eyes, they were like a reflection of hers. Missing, fear, insecurity. But also, a twinkle of confidence. On the other hand, she may have only imagined. She hoped she didn't.

Aladdin smiled at Jasmine before giving his horse a mark to go. As the horse started to walk towards the gates, Jasmine had to let go of Aladdin's hand. Aladdin turned his eyes away from Jasmine's and took the reins on his both hands. Jasmine turned her profile to look at the direction as Aladdin and the rest of the group walked out of the palace gates. She still kept staring after the gates closed.

* * *

**Sorry for the chapter six for taking so long. I'm kinda struggling with my English right now. Sometimes I can write English for like pages straight and sometimes I don't really know how to translate my thoughts to words, especially English words. But I'm trying my best, hopefully I will soon get iver it and chapter six is finally here. **

**I imagined Jasmine's dress as a purple versio as Naomi Scott's dress she wore on the Los Angles premiere of Aladdin with a little more royal touch on it. :)**

**I have a few plot twist on my mind but I really don't know which ones to use and are they even that good. So please comment what do you think is going to happen next (if you have any idea) to make me decite which one to use. I also don't know if I have managed to write the characters right, comment if you get the right vibes of the characters. **

**Next chapter is a short one but I had this cute idea and wanted to write it as part of my story. Hope you don't mind. **

**Thank you for reading. It mean SO much to me!**


	7. Chapter 7

It was late, very late. Jasmine didn't even know if it was still the day Aladdin had left to Babauta, or the day after that. The dark sky that was seen from her window didn't tell much, the same darkness conquered the sky hours before. She had put on all the lights her study room had on, torches, candles and oil lamps. The dark, steady Arabian night blew a warm wind to her study room thru the window. It made her shiver as she tried to end the letter she had started to write. She felt the pressure of the night's late hours as her eyes started to fell more and more heavier. But she didn't want to go to bed just yet.

After Aladdin had left, she had buried herself in all the royal tasks she needed to fill. They drove her attention somewhere else and kept her mind busy – most of the time. Royal tasks were also something she really needed to do and didn't mind doing – she didn't want to be the Sultan for nothing. It was something she gladly did and taught herself talented at it.

As she rubbed her eyes, she heard a voice coming from the direction of the doorway. Someone had entered her study room. As she turned to see who it was, she noticed it was her Baba. He carried an oil lamp with him as he closed the door behind him. Hamed turned to look to Jasmine who had done the same to his direction.

"My dear, how are you still awake?"

"I wasn't tired and had something to do." she rose eyebrows at him. "What time is it?"

"2 in the morning." Hamed walked deeper to the room. He took a seat next to Jasmine and placed the oil lamp on her desk.

"Oh." Jasmine had lost the track of timing as she had been writing the letters. No wonder why she had started to feel so tired. She rose her eyebrows to her father. "How are you still awake?"

"I was sleeping and then woke up and didn't get a sleep right away, so I decided to check on you." he took Jasmine's hand on his. "Just like when you were a little girl. But you weren't in bed."

"You don't do that every night, don't you?" Jasmine asked, not knowing even herself if it was a joke or a serious question.

"Of course not. Just tonight." her father laughed as he answered the question.

He looked at the letter she was writing. She had only a couple of sentences on it. As the former Sultan, he knew she either was tired or just started a new letter.

"You have been a wonderful Sultana, Jasmine. However, Sultanas don't need to manage all alone. Even I didn't do it all alone." they stopped for a while there. Jafar had been the one besides him, before he almost killed him and destroyed Agrabah. They couldn't deny that he wouldn't have been helpful. Jasmine breathed heavily to the memories. "I'm here to help you, my dear."

He looked so confident, so smart. Jasmine smiled at him. She was lucky to have someone like him as a father.

"I know. Thank you, Baba." a small nod filled the answer. Of course, she knew she could ask anything from her father. And she also had Aladdin, she wasn't alone. Sometimes it was just hard for her to ask help in time. She was always trying so hard to manage the task on her own before asking help, and then if she did, it was already in hurry. Quickly Jasmine turned to look at the paper, clearly looking for something to show him. She freed her hand from her father's as she took the papers on her hands.

"Actually, there is something I would need to ask help..."

"In the morning." Hamed cut her shortly before she could have gone too far. Jasmine turned to look at him, slowly, avoiding the eyes.

"Right... in the morning."

She dropped the paper back, leaned back to rest her upper body on the back of her chair. She started playing with her fingers and looked at her hands. She didn't say anything, but only observing the uncertain, even lonely look on her face her father knew exactly why she hadn't already gone to bed.

"It won't fell that different."

Her father didn't need to explain himself anymore since Jasmine understood what he meant. Sleeping alone. She hadn't done that in a year. The nights were always shared with Aladdin. They would at least spend the night together if they wouldn't wake up or fall asleep on each other's arms. They usually did, but sometimes the royal tasks and daily duties would be too much. It was a feeling Jasmine liked to have after a long day, calm and peaceful, something she had gotten used to. She rose her eyes from her hands to look in her father's eyes.

"You promise?" she quietly asked. Her eyebrows turned into a questioning pose.

"I promise." he answered and smiled at her, she smiled back and nodded shyly. He had had to learn that too. Only he needed to learn to do that for the rest of his life, not for two weeks.

After giving him a smile back she turned to look at the wall across her as she let out a little laugh followed with a sentence, "It's crazy how much he has changed my life, Baba."

"I'm glad you are finally happy."

Jasmine turned to look back at him. Her eyebrows drove a questionable look on him, as if he had misunderstood something. Her Baba didn't seem to get why she was so surprised, so she needed to explain herself a little bit.

"I wasn't _unhappy _before I met him, Baba." she explained. Her father looked at her, like she needed to explain even more as he didn't firstly even answer back but also rose his eyebrows carefully.

"I just felt a little..." thinking for a while what word she was going to use, "shut down."

Remembering the times she taught her future was written in stones and she had no voice to change that, she crossed her arms across her chest. Her father kept looking at her, smiling.

"I'm glad he made the feeling disappear."

"Me too."

To be honest, it was not only Aladdin, it was he Baba too. When he allowed Jasmine to be the next Sultan of Agrabah he had opened so many gates to her life. She was able to go outside the palace walls, to join her people. And even further into new destinations if she wanted to. These were the things she was only able to dream about. Now she was actually able to do them. Moreover, Aladdin wasn't the one who had allowed her to do these things even though he had helped and supported her to do them – with a bit of help from his new magical friend, carpet. That her father let her do these things and supported her to do them and be the best possible ruler of Agrabah meant more than anything to her.

But Jasmine was too tired to explain herself. Maybe she would, she taught she should. So that they both knew how the thing really was. But she decided to do it later when the pressure of the night didn't almost make her fall asleep on her desk. She and her father walked out of her study room as her father walked her to her bedroom. She listened as her father told her something on their way there, but she didn't catch much. She mostly just nodded back at him. When they reached the doors of her bedroom, Jasmine gave her father a kiss on a cheek and they told each other good night one last time. Before she opened the doors, she watched as her father made his way to his own bedroom. He would be safe, she taught. There were plenty of guards still awake and protecting everyone and everything inside the palace walls.

Finally, when she opened the doors, she found a pair of eyes looking at her – Rajah has been waiting for her. Jasmine's gaze melted as she saw the tiger. How could she had forgotten him?

"Oh, Rajah. I'm sorry it took so long." she said as a half sight and walked to her tiger friend.

She swept her hand through Rajah's furry head and he leaned to his touch. Jasmine smiled at him before she took her way to her wardrobe where she undressed herself from the dress she wore. She was lucky enough she had changed herself after the morning to an easy dress, something that was easy to take off as she didn't want to wake up the maids so late. As she had pulled out of the dress, she put on some silk pyjama kinds of clothes, trousers and a crop top, red by the colour. She opened her hair and brushed it a little bit. She was now also bare foot and it felt good after hours of wearing high heels. For the finale, she went to the bathroom and cleaned her face with warm water. After she dried her face to the towel, she once looked at herself from the mirror and turned back to walk to her bed.

She sat on the edge of the bed. Rajah made his way to next to her bed as he always did. It didn't take much to the tiger to fall asleep. Jasmine smiled on the sight of the sleeping tiger and laid down on bed herself too. She pulled the sheets to warm herself and get more comfortable. Then after a while, she finally looked at the left side of her bed – empty. She kept her eyes there for a moment. She taught about the person she shared her bed with and hoped, that someone taught about her too. She fell asleep on the taught, smiling.

And believe it, someone was thinking about her too, somewhere in the middle of the Great Ocean.

* * *

**Enjoy chapter seven!**

**Just want to let you know that from now on I will be updating my story generally on weekends. I'm at school again and on weekends I hopefully have time to write. **

**Hope you liked this chapter even though it was kind of out of the plot. :)**

**Thank you for the rewievs for the last chapter and thank you for reading. Means a lot!**


	8. Chapter 8

Three days later.

In Babauta.

It was something like the _Prince Ali_ parade but much, much smaller what Aladdin was experiencing again. He arrived to Babauta along with the royal palace guards. Even some of Babauta's guards had offered to lead them to the palace. They were riding horses, jogging thru the streets of the Kingdom of Babauta. Unlike some of the prices, Aladdin didn't need a garage to ride him to the palace, he was completely happy with riding on a horse there himself.

After three nights overseas, they finally reached Babauta. Aladdin had never before spent a night on top of the ocean, but to his surprise, he had really enjoyed it. It was calm and peaceful. The waves didn't make him nosey as he had maybe taught, they actually felt good and it was easy to fall asleep to the sound. He hoped he could spend time overseas again in the future, but maybe for a different reason then going to the kingdom that had declared war on them. When they had reached the land, first thing Aladdin noticed was that Babauta was a lot colder than Agrabah. Nevertheless, it was not too cold, no. Just a lot colder than in Agrabah – and in Agrabah it was almost too hot sometimes. And when they came to the city, it was less colourful. The sky was cloudy in the city; at the harbour where they had come few hours ago, it was almost clear. Guessing the wind on the harbour moved the clouds towards the city

Aladdin felt the gazes all along his body as he rode thru the streets of Babauta and whispers started to rise._ The Prince from Agrabah, right? Where is the Sultana?_ Everyone had heard the story how the former princess of Agrabah had changed the law to marry a street thief. Was he worthy? Aladdin gulped to the taught and focused his gaze back to the way they were going. People had made a clear path for them as they got closer and closer to the palace. The whole palace now seen with its high towels and heavy doors. The palace was smaller, but not too small. Aladdin taught it was _cosy _in some sort of way.

It took a few more minutes to Aladdin and the rest for arriving the palace. Aladdin felt his heartbeat risen as he rode thru the palace gates. Close the gates! He heard someone yelling up from one of the towels above the gates.

They got of their horses and let the guards and maidens of Babauta take care of them. The stuff they had with them they took. Couple of guards carried the bags with them. Aladdin took the dagger he had bought with him from his horse's saddle and placed it on his vest. Ever since becoming the Prince Consort, he had gotten used to caring a dagger with him. Jasmine's father did the same, and obviously the guards. He just tried to be worthy of a title of a Prince and had even learned how to use one.

"This way, Prince Consort." he heard someone told him from behind his back. He turned around. A young boy, maybe his age or even younger with dark brown hair showed him the way with his hand. He was wearing a soldier's uniform. It surprised Aladdin, he looked so young. He politely told him thank you.

They stepped deeper to the palace as the echo repeated the sound of the walking men. Hakim walked right next to Aladdin and had a hand placed on his sword. Aladdin had his hands resting together behind his back. The rest of the guards walked right behind them. Aladdin explored the palace. The walls were full of paintings, even fuller than they were in Agrabah. Aladdin supposed that the paintings were of the former rulers, former princes and princesses of Babauta, later queens and kings. Some of them looked familiar. He had read history books and remembered some of the faces Jasmine had showed him.

Finally, after a long walk on some of the long aisles of the palace, they arrived in the throne room. There sat someone on the throne and Aladdin recognized him as the King of Babauta. Aladdin fixed his pose once more and took a deep breath. He stood straighter and stopped for a good distance. The King rose up from his seat and took a few steps forward before Aladdin bowed to him and the rest of the royal guards repeated after him. Sweat started to fall from his back as the king walked even closer, slowly. It reminded him of the moment he had arrived to Agrabah's palace undercover as Prince Ali. He wouldn't mess this one up as badly as he had done back then, not today. He had excessively many 'games to lose' this time.

"It's a pleasure to welcome you to Babauta, Prince consort." King of Babauta used exactly the same words as the Sultan had. It made Aladdin feel even dizzier of nervousness than he already was.

"Thank you for the invitation." he politely answered. King of Babauta, whose name was Robert by the way only nodded as return. They would use royal names for now, at least. He had been the king for the last nine years while Aladdin had been a new prince for the last nine months. It made him feel _weak_.

"I hope the trip was pleasant." he said and walked even closer to Aladdin. He was observing his face, he had only seen photos of Aladdin and was probably very curious of how the husband of Agrabah's Sultana really looked like. The King was tall, much taller than Aladdin, which didn't surprise him since he was short, but it made Aladdin feel helpless. At least he had tall guards behind and besides him made him feel safer. He was also a lot older, probably somewhere around 50. Older and wiser, Aladdin taught.

"It was." he managed to answer. He should probably had answered something more, but nothing came out from his mouth. Now they stood there in silence. The King was still staring at him before asking the new prince a question. He tried his best not giving away his nervousness.

"Tell me, Prince Consort, how the Sultana is doing."

Aladdin's jaw tightened as he noticed he had mentioned Jasmine. It took a second for him to put a polite smile on his face before answering the question. "She's doing well, thank you for asking. She wished for me to send greetings from her even though she couldn't be here today."

The king nodded a little. Aladdin wasn't sure if the quiet nodding was a good thing or not.

A large noise came from the right side of the group and it made every one of them jump just a little. After a while, Aladdin recognized the voice of opening doors. Someone had entered the room and was now walking towards them – a woman about the King's age. Aladdin knew it was the Queen, the King's wife. He had seen her once in a photo. Her short brown hair was on a bun and she was wearing a red dress with multiple silver details. She was a bit shorter than Aladdin had imagined. As she was close enough, the king introduced her to their new guests.

"Meet my wife, Queen Juliet." he pleased a hand behind her back before pulling it back after a short moment.

Aladdin bowed to the woman who was now as close to him as the king was. He was still bowing when he started to speak,

"It's a pleasure meeting you, Your Highness."

Aladdin slowly rose up and encountered the smiling face of the Queen.

"Likewise. I have heard a lot about you." The Queen said. She sounded kind in Aladdin's opinion. But you can't judge a book by its cover, he reminded himself and fixed his pose.

"I hope nothing but good." he really, really did mean what he had said. He was sure pretty much everyone had been talking about Agrabah lately – how the former princess had become the first female Sultan of the country and married a commoner.

The queen smiled back at him. She didn't answer. Maybe it was better this way.

"You and your guards must be tired of the traveling, Prince." the King spoke up. "My maids will show you your rooms and we hope you will join us to the dinner where we could share our opinions more on the... situation."

"As you wish, Your Majesty. Thank you. Me and our head soldier Hakim will join you later tonight."

Aladdin nodded towards Hakim to let the royal couple know whom he was talking of. They answered with a nod. Many nods for one afternoon, Aladdin taught.

Turning around to face the maids that would lead them to their rooms for the next week Aladdin and the rest of the palace guards they left the throne room. Aladdin heard whispers behind him but didn't understand a word.

* * *

As the daylight started to fadeaway in the kingdom of Babauta, Hakim and Aladdin were getting ready to join the dinner the royal couple of Babauta had invited them. Aladdin had fallen asleep on the soft bed he would spend the next few nights in after the first meeting on the royal throne room. He had felt so exhausted, it probably wasn't a good idea to take a nap on a first day in a foreign, dangerous country but he couldn't help it.

He had picked one of the fancy outfits with a light brown vest and boots to wear at the dinner. The nap had clearly made some proses since his face didn't seem that tired anymore. He brushed his hair once more with a hairbrush and heard a knock on a door.

"Yes?"

The door floated open and Hakim stood behind it.

"Are you ready?" he asked.

"Yeah." Aladdin answered and looked at himself thru the mirror once more. He could do it, just play cool, remember to be polite and don't ask stupid questions.

Aladdin joined Hakim and they walked out from his bedroom.

A silence was found as they took the stairs and walked closer to the dining room.

"Are you nervous?" Hakim asked, probably just to break the silence and not being too curious.

"You bet." he answered, out of breath. His forehead was starting to sweat.

"Don't worry. You have handled royal dinners before." he told him.

"I have, with Jasmine." he took a quick look on his face; he was already looking down at him.

"The Sultana's presence isn't necessary."

"I hope you're right."

They had reached the doors of the dining room and entered in. The Queen and King were already waiting for them, talking to the head chef until they noticed Aladdin and Hakim had joined them. They rose up from their seats and came to greet them. Aladdin and Hakim shook hands with both of them, greeted good evening and the royal couple of Babauta directed them to sit on the left side of the table. Waiters started to fill up their classes with water and some sort of wine. Aladdin had grown familiar with wine in the past two years, he actually taught wine was pretty tasteful drink and made the food taste even better.

After the waiters had left to get the starters, they started to talk about some basic topics, like the weather, food and clothes. Aladdin told them that it was a lot hotter in Agrabah and he enjoys spending time in a much cooler environment. The King told he had visited Agrabah a few times years ago and remembers the heat well; he was sweating like a camel then. The group laughed on that. The King also told who designed the cloths for them and the Queen asked if they used more silk or satin on the royal female outfits in Agrabah. Aladdin answered silk even though he wasn't sure, he believed Hakim would have corrected him if he was wrong. The Queen also asked how Aladdin and the Sultana had met. It was not as if a commoner just meets and falls in love with a princess. So, Aladdin told the story as simply as possible and left some details out, like the fact that the Sultana had accidentally stolen. The Queen seemed impressed and Aladdin decided to ask a question about Jasmine, now that they were talking about her,

"If I may ask, why didn't you invite the Sultana?"

"We felt like she might have had too much power as the ruler of the land. We wanted to hold the power of the situation."

Aladdin nodded politely, he totally understood. He only hoped that his presentation wasn't too weak. He felt Hakim fix his posture; he was probably thinking the same thing as Aladdin.

"I really hope I can still be useful and that we can handle this situation by talking." Aladdin said.

"As do we. We must admit, we were a bit too fast when we decorated the war. We were just getting really tired on how the Sultana rules." the King said, his face was expressionless.

Aladdin however looked surprised. "What's wrong with the way she rules?"

"She focuses on her kingdom, not the allies outside the bounds of Agrabah." the Queen spoke up.

"But... your country is not even allies with us."

Aladdin heard Hakim caught a little besides him, he should not have said that. They might think Agrabah didn't want them as our allies, more like enemies. His cheeks started to feel warm and he reminded himself to think before speaking, there is no time for wrong moves.

"But we have many allies that are, so it influences on us, too."

Aladdin nodded in return and turned to look down.

This was going to be a long week...

* * *

**Chapter eight is here. It's really not my favorite one and not the one that I'm the most proud of, but I just wanted to get it for you already. It's also maybe a bit boring. I hope you still enjoy. I promise I have a lot better chapters planned for this story, I'm excided to write them. I hope y'all are excited to read them, too. :)**

**Also a big thank you for some cool ideas in the comments! I will try to include them to my story. But if I can't I hope you are still pleased with the way I do my story. **

**Thanks for reading, I appriciate!**


	9. Chapter 9

The dinner lasted longer than Aladdin had imagined. The King and the Queen were surely chatty people. They didn't talk about the war that much, so Aladdin was afraid to ask about it. He believed they would talk about it later after getting to know each other a little bit. They probably wanted to break the ice between the royal families first. At least he knew now why they wanted war: they were unhappy with the way Jasmine ruled. Aladdin still couldn't believe it, he taught everybody loved her. His heart broke even thinking about having to tell Jasmine what had made them do such a thing and put Agrabah and its people in danger. She has been so careful, so loving towards her people. Aladdin knew she wouldn't blame herself about it, she was strong and was going to get over it quickly. Nevertheless, it still made him sad she had to go thru it.

It was probably very late when Aladdin walked back to his room. He was exhausted, again. Royalty wasn't an easy task to fill, he was not a natural in it like his wife, but he tried his best and believed he got better on it every single day. He taught he'll be good enough soon. _Good enough_. That's all he wanted to be, all he needed to be. He didn't feel like it yet. But he kept working on it and refused to give up. He was a fighter, too.

Aladdin hadn't walked alone in the castle before. Everyone had left to the other directions and he had convinced that he was going to be just fine walking the short path to his room on his own. And he was. He knew where exactly to go and was almost there. A good night sleep sounded like a dream to him.

Aladdin was so distracted on his own thoughts that he didn't notice the person walking right behind him before she spoke up,

"Prince!"

Aladdin stopped immediately and pulled himself from his thoughts. He stood there for a moment. The voice didn't sound threatening, so he turned around slowly, now facing the person – a woman about his age, the same dark brown hair the queen had, but longer. Almost as long as Jasmine's. She was wearing a golden dress with many details. Aladdin couldn't see all the little sparkling diamonds and the details on the dress's fabric as he was too far away.

Walking closer, the woman spoke up again, "Aladdin... isn't it?"

Her voice was soft yet a bit mysterious. Her full lips moved as that short sentence came out from her mouth.

"Prince Consort. But Aladdin is fine too." Aladdin said. Jasmine had made clear that he needed to make sure that he was addressed as he was supposed to as a royal. In fact, calling him with the royal title he had gave him a stronger feeling, a safer feeling.

He stood straight, didn't walk forward but the woman kept walking closer and stopped in a good distance. She was tall, actually. Almost as tall as Aladdin. Her dress covered her feet completely, so he didn't know if she was wearing high heels. Even if it would have been seen, Aladdin didn't dare to take his eyes away from her face, that's how he stayed on track of her movements and her face language. Her green eyes reflected the moonlight coming behind Aladdin straight into her face. She was still wearing makeup and her ball gown. She was clearly a royal, that golden coloured fabric and golden diamonds on her dress were excessively expensive, even for someone from a high-income family. Aladdin rose his eyebrows, tried to bring together a name for her face, has he seen her before?

He couldn't. He needed to ask, "And you are?"

"Morgan."

Of course, she was the King and Queen's daughter. Why didn't he think of that?

"I'm sure you've heard rumours about me." she started way too fast. She probably knew he knew who _Morgan _was.

By rumours, she must have meant the situation over Babauta and Agrabah when their great-grandfathers were leaders. When they had fallen in love with the same princess and the princess had chosen the King of Babauta over Jasmine's great-grandfather. And the rumours after that telling that the new-born baby might not be the King's, but the Sultan of Agrabah's...

"Not that many." Aladdin answered. It was a long time ago. Did she really _flatter _with it? "I'm sure you've heard rumours about me, too." he didn't find anything else to say.

"I have. You're the thief who stole the princess's heart."

Aladdin gulped, "You could say that."

Morgan started slowly to walk. Her dress's long golden train followed her behind, and when she was on the right side of him, she stopped there. Aladdin felt nervous, what did she want? He turned so that his profile was facing her.

"I think that what you and the Sultana are doing is great." she rose her chin a little. You could tell by the way she moved and how her face stayed cool, she was confident about herself. Whatever she had come here to tell him, she was going to. No doubt.

Aladdin was confused. "Marriage?" he asked. He probably sounded stupid, but he needed a better explanation.

"Yes, between a princess and a pauper." Aladdin was never a pauper; he was a thief. He didn't beg for food, he stole it. But before he had time to correct her, she continued. "I think the world should finally start to see that being a prince or a princess doesn't need royal blood."

Morgan observed Aladdin's face. He felt her eyes staring at every single quality on his face. He must have seemed confused from her point of view and to be honest, he was. He got even more confused with the following line,

"But if I were you, I would be careful."

"Why?" Aladdin's eyebrows rose. He was getting so confused. She just pops out from nowhere and starts to address him like a fool? She was sassy indeed, surprisingly sassy for a princess. Not alike at all with her parents. Her parents were _chatty_, sure. But not this kind of chatty.

"Some might that it's a weakness to marry a man like you, softness." Aladdin felt his heartbeat risen. "Some might think that Agrabah would now be an easy country to attack."

Bringing the war back on his mind again, he asked, "Are you talking about your own country?"

Morgan surely knew about the declaration. "I'm not talking about any country specific. We here appreciate your country, really."

Aladdin couldn't squeeze the little laugh that came out from his mouth. Appreciate, really? Sure, Aladdin would have believed her if there wasn't a war declared for them. He buried his thoughts in the deepest brain cells in his head and focused on being polite, she was the princess, after all.

"All I'm saying is that keep your eyes open, prince." she took a pause. "Why aren't you the Sultan anyway?"

After the marriage, Aladdin could easily be turned as the Sultan. In some cultures men _deserved_ to be more then princes.

"My wife's position is as high as the Sultan's. She sits on the highest throne." he said with a calm voice. He could never let anyone take the position Jasmine had accomplished away from her. She had worked too hard for it. She was talented and deserved to be the leader.

Morgan started to walk again.

"She's the first female Sultan I've heard of for a long time now." she said while walking.

She had moved on the other side of him. Aladdin moved as she moved, along keeping his face and profile straight to hers trying to feel the strongest on the situation. It was getting more and more dark in the palace as the night was starting to fall. Morgan still didn't let him go, she kept talking to him. Aladdin quickly thought of running away, he wasn't far from his room and was fast on his feet. But he couldn't obviously do that.

Instead of running away, he nodded at her; it was no surprise to him as it was something he get to hear every single week. He didn't answer and there was a silent moment, their eyes met.

"Want to hear a story?" Morgan asked.

Did he? Probably not. He wanted to go to sleep, get ready for tomorrow. But what else could he answer then, "I'd loved to."

"There was this princess. About 40 years ago." Morgan started. "She wanted to lead, just like your wife. I'm not saying I know her, but what I have heard I would assume that. And she got to. Her father died before she found a husband, so she took the lead and stopped looking for a prince to marry. And who else would have, she was the only heir to the throne and her mother had been dead for a few years now. She had her coronation a couple of months after. But it all ended as a tragedy. She was killed on a night of her coronation. Someone was able to sneak into the palace and kill the first ever female ruler of the land while she was asleep. I would recommend her country as a place to travel to, but it was conquered right after the Queen's death." she finally finished her story.

To Aladdin's surprise, he had listened the story carefully. He didn't know why the story had made him shiver, but he was getting cold as the goose bombs travelled thru his back. He knew the story was old, but he was still feeling a bit scared for Jasmine. He didn't know how this princess of Babauta managed to get on his nerves so easily.

"It was a long time ago. The world has changed. Besides, I wouldn't let anything like that happen to Jasmine." he spoke to her, forgetting to address Jasmine as a royal title. He narrowed his eyes away from Morgan's.

"I'm sure you wouldn't." she stared at him with her blank, green eyes. Even though there weren't Aladdin's eyes to stare anymore, she stared at his face. A silence fell between the two of them.

Carefully narrowing his eyes back to face her face, he asked, "You don't want to rule... someday?

Morgan sighed, "I have two older brothers. Believe me, I could never even if I wanted to. But you're right, I don't want to. I'll leave that to my eldest brother and enjoy life with so many other ways."

"I see." Aladdin nodded. That was right, indeed. The royal couple had also two sons. Older than Morgan.

Morgan started to walk on the direction she had gotten here, slowly. Not going away just yet since she still had something to say.

"All I'm saying is that keep your eyes open, mind awake and a hand ready on your sword, Prince Consort." She took a peek on his dagger on his vest.

After making sure Aladdin had seen where her eyes had glared, she dared to take a last sight of his face.

"Have a good evening." she calmly said and started to walk away.

"You too, princess." Aladdin said to her. Morgan smiled at him, for the first time.

After that, Morgan turned around and started to walk away, faster. Aladdin made sure she had disappeared behind the other aisle's walls before turning around himself, carefully continuing the journey to his bedroom as the moonlight enlightened his way.

* * *

**Here you go, chapter nine. I actually really like this one! :) I hope you all enjoyed as well. And I really hope that I managed to create the tension I imagined between Aladdin and Morgan. What do you think, is she going to be trouble? Once again, the characters from Babauta are my own creations. Charecters from Aladdin belong to Disney.**

**If you have missed Jasmine, don't worry. We'll get to see her on the next chapter. :) **

**Untill then, thank you for reading. Thank you for favoriting ang following the story and a special thank you to the beautiful reviews! I'm truly so thankful for them. **


	10. Chapter 10

_Eighteen months ago_

_Evenings like this were something Aladdin and Jasmine both enjoyed. They were rare, really. It wasn't often that the palace maids and other staff of the palace let the not-yet-married couple have alone time. Commoners didn't probably really think it like that, but a royal non-married couple wasn't left alone often._

_But tonight, they managed to sneak into Jasmine's bedroom without anyone noticing. They were glad. After all the things they needed to do for the upcoming coronation, they really needed some alone time. Royal coronation wasn't an easy party to do. You needed to make sure everyone was invited, if not, the one that wasn't invited could get offended. Jasmine needed to practice the things she needed to do in the coronation, so she wouldn't mess up on the special day. You could tell it stressed her out. Luckily, she had only supportive people around her. _

_The time flies the quickest when you are with the one you adore, you could say. Aladdin and Jasmine hadn't even been doing anything that special, talking, playing with each other's fingers, laughing aloud. But not too loud, it was very late. They were now sitting on Jasmine's bed._

_They were talking about their wedding, which was still a bit far away. Jasmine felt sorry that they needed to postpone the wedding because of her coronation. Aladdin thought it was silly, she had waited a lifetime for her to get to rule, to be the rightful leader for her people. Aladdin may have known her only two months, but he felt like he already knew her so well. She deserved to be crowned as soon as possible, even if it meant they needed to wait a bit longer before getting to wake up next to each other every morning. They had time._

"_I should get going." Aladdin told her and rose from her bed. It didn't take long for him to be standing next to her bed, Jasmine still sitting on her bed, looking confused._

"_Good night, love." he told her and placed a soft kiss on her forehead. Jasmine quickly crapped his hand and didn't let go. Aladdin couldn't continue his way to his own room. He looked at her with a bit sad eyes, she knew that he needed to go before the sun would start to rise and __quicker__ he went easier it would be._

_Jasmine stopped him, "No! Please, stay." she asked. She had rose to her knees on her bed and was now on an eye level with him. Looking as deep into his eyes, she begged for a few minutes with him. _

"_Jasmine, I can't stay overnight." It hurt him to tell her that, but it was true. Maybe other cultures allowed an engaged couple to share a bed, but for __Agrabah's__ royal it wasn't like that. But good things come to those who wait, right?_

"_No, no!" she quickly told him. Jasmine knew that, but she didn't want to let him go just yet. She needed another 10 minutes, maybe even 20 if he didn't get too sleepy. "Just a few more minutes."_

_Jasmine got down from her knees to sit on her bed and guided Aladdin to sit next to her, carefully._

_Aladdin looked at her for a long moment, watched as a little smile lighted up on her face. She looked beautiful on the light of the moonlight. She wasn't wearing makeup, had let her hair loose and was wearing a light night robe. He really wanted to spend a few minutes more with her. In fact, he wanted to spend the whole night with her. He couldn't yet. He knew. But even a few more minutes sounded good. _

"_Alright." _

_Jasmine's shy smile brighter up as he sat on her bed and rested on the back of the bed. Jasmine let her body melt on his chest._

"_Your father would kill me if he knew I'm here."_

_With eyes closed, still a smile on her face Jasmine answered, "My father trusts you."_

"_I wouldn't like to test that." Aladdin said. Jasmine only squeezed closer._

_A minute or two passed, not too long though. Jasmine counted the heartbeats she heard behind her. It was a nice night; it was hotter then it usually was at the nights in __Agrabah__. The wind from the ocean cooled the air a bit, not too much. A couple of fireflies had found their way to the palace garden and lightened the night a bit. The flying little lights looked beautiful. _

"_So," Aladdin started, "what do you want to do?" _

_He thought she had something on her mind when she asked him to stay._

"_Lay on your chest and fall asleep here." Jasmine mumbled. _

_Probably not. Aladdin let out a sad laugh, "We can't do that. And you know it."_

"_I don't care."_

_Looking down at her with a smile Jasmine didn't see as she was staring at the other direction, he said, "You're ridiculous, princess." _

"_You know, you won't get to call me that for a long time." she smirked to the idea and was being proud of having something to tease him about. _

"_Better make these moments count then." Aladdin said with a teasing tone too. _

_Falling into silence again, enjoying each other's presence they just laid there for a long moment. Jasmine looked at the sky, slowly smoothing her hand on Aladdin's. He rested his chin on Jasmine's head, looking around her room. After a while, he spoke up, _

"_Hey!" Aladdin quickly said, with a bit loud voice what scared Jasmine a bit. _

_When he rose up from there, disappeared behind Jasmine's back was when he totally confused her. Where was he going? He walked farther from the bed, towards the balcony. Jasmine looked at him with a confused look on her face, now sitting alone on her bed, no longer laying on her man's chest._

"_What?" she asked, still looking where he was going, confused._

_Before Aladdin reached the stairs that went to her balcony, he stopped not too far from Jasmine's bed. Besides the couch, laid an oud. He picked it up, started to play a bit with the reeds before asking, "How come I didn't know you had an oud, too?"_

_Jasmine's face lighted as a smile crossed on her lips, "Yours was borrowed. This one is actually my own."_

_Aladdin let out a laughing sigh and continued playing with the reeds of the oud, not playing any specific melody. Jasmine watched from her bed as he played, smiling._

_He rose his gaze, to meet Jasmine's. She blushed as she got caught staring at him. She looked down, still smiling. Aladdin smiled too, asking, "Can you play it for me?" he handed the oud towards her even though he was still a bit too far for her to take it._

_Jasmine rose her eyes back on his eyes, "I think it's your turn."_

_She had played the oud for him, when they first met. The memories lightened the air between them even more. Aladdin started walking closer to the bed, slowly, not reaching it before he spoke up again,_

"_Then you can't lay against my chest." he smirked._

_Jasmine laughed a bit, not loud but quietly. She played with her fingers, smiling to her fiancé._

"_Fair enough. I'll play." she took the oud from his hands and made room for Aladdin to sit with her._

_Aladdin sat down beside her. Jasmine started to get ready to play, looking at the reeds of the oud. It had been a while since she last played it. Aladdin stared down at her, putting a hand around her waist as she laid on him, he asked, _

"_Can you sing?"_

_Jasmine turned to look at him,_

"_Sing?" she asked. Aladdin nodded at her, carefully. She smiled up to him, she made a requisite, "Only if you sing with me."_

"_But I don't know the words."_

"_You know. Trust me." she told him smiling. Aladdin didn't need more explanation. He shyly smiled back at her and took his eyes away to stare at the moon._

_Jasmine started to play the familiar melody her mother had taught her. She watched the reeds, carefully playing the right chords, before she started to sing,_

"_When the shadows unfold,_  
_When the sun hides its gold,_  
_When the wind and the cold come calling._  
_When the path isn't clear,_  
_And the stars disappear,_  
_As an endless midnight's falling..."_

_Jasmine looked at Aladdin besides her, he was staring outside, to the stars and to the moon, probably remembering the person that had taught him the touching words to the lullaby she was now playing. She waited for him to join, smiling, _

"_At the edge of the sky,_  
_There's a moon hanging high..."_

_Jasmine turned her gaze back to the oud, smiling even brighter,_

"_When you're lost,_  
_It'll try to remind you."_

_Now it was Aladdin's turn to look at Jasmine, as she started to sing her part of the song, _

"_On a dark desert night,_  
_You can look to the light,_  
_Cause it's shining there_  
_To find you."_

_Turning his gaze back to the moon, Aladdin got ready to join Jasmine, as they started to sing the chorus of the song together, _

"_Desert moon light the way..."_

_Their voices sounded heavenly together. _

"_Till the dark turns __to day__._  
_Like a lamp in the lonely night,_  
_Bright and blue._  
_Desert moon,_  
_Wild and free,_  
_Will it burn just for me?"_

_Aladdin turned to look at Jasmine as she started to sing the next line alone, _

"_Shine down." _

_Not taking his eyes away from Jasmine, Aladdin sang the next line, _

"_Shine down." _

_Jasmine turned to look at him with loving eyes, carefully still playing the right chords as she got ready to join him for the final line, _

"_Till I find my way to you..." _

_Letting the final line last __as long as__ it could, they pressed their foreheads together. Breathing in and out, they enjoyed the touch. Jasmine didn't stop playing the oud for a couple of seconds after they ended the line. When she finally stopped, she let her brown eyes melt on the loving gaze of Aladdin's._

* * *

Present.

In Agrabah

The marketplace was filled with people as per usual. It had been a while since Jasmine last visited there, she didn't plan on doing anything special. Just seeing how her people was doing and maybe buying something little if they didn't recognise her. She had a veil to cover her hair and her face a bit, she hoped no one would. If they did, they'd start to treat her better and behave better when their ruler was around. Jasmine didn't blame them; it was obvious that they wanted to treat their Sultana as best as they could. She just wanted to know how they were _really _doing.

Jasmine had convinced the guards and her father that she was just fine going alone. Although her father had sent a few extra guards in the marketplace for this afternoon, just in case. It was going to get some time for him to get used to Jasmine going outside the palace walls. He was just worried and wanted to keep her safe.

Strictly speaking, she was not alone in the marketplace.

"Abu, please try to behave, okay? And do not steal, we have money to buy something if we want to." she told the furry monkey on her shoulder. She had taken Abu with her to the marketplace.

The little monkey jumped off her shoulder to walk on the ground himself, still keeping close to Jasmine. He observed the area around them, the people and the buildings, where he could walk so that the people or the camels wouldn't crush him, nor he wouldn't go too far from Jasmine.

Jasmine started to look around too. She didn't find anything out of control, just normally children running around, sellers trying to sell their products and women washing their laundry. Everything seemed to be just fine; she didn't even find any kids in need of money. She believed she would after going deeper to the city, she was still pretty close to the palace. In her pockets, she had some gold coins to give to the poor people.

After walking for a while, she saw a nice jewellery shop and decided to spot by. Walking closer to the front of the jewellery shop, she felt Abu leap back to her shoulder, leaning in ready to grab some jewellery.

"Abu! Do not touch." she told him.

Abu made a little disappointed monkey sound and backed up to sit steady on Jasmine's shoulder. When he saw that someone was coming, he quickly leaped back to the ground. Jasmine heard a voice coming from in front of her,

"How may I help you, young lady?"

Jasmine turned her gaze from the nice pair of golden earrings she was looking in her hands to the woman. She was somewhere around 30 years old and wore nice silk clothes. She was probably the owner of the jewellery shop.

"These earrings are really beautiful." she told the woman and was about to ask her how much they were, but she was able to speak first.

"Yes, they are. We have them in silver too, if you'd like them better."

"Nah, gold is really more me." Jasmine answered with a happy tone, smiling up to the woman.

There was silence between them for a long moment. Jasmine held the earrings in her hands, looking at the nice engraved little details on them, before asking,

"How much are they?" she smiled up to the owner of the shop.

The woman kept quiet for a moment, to Jasmine's surprise, she didn't answer her question,

"You're the Sultana, right?" she asked with a whispering tone, no one around them heard her.

Jasmine's heart stopped for a moment. How did she recognize her? She had made sure to cover her hair, to cover most of her face and to take off all the expensive jewellery.

"How could you tell?" she asked, with a quiet voice of her own too, staring up to the woman with a sharp gaze in her eyes. The woman looked at her with admiring eyes. She probably didn't mean to expose her; she'd keep it quiet. At least Jasmine believed and hoped so.

"You've been to the marketplace before, I know what you look like. And that monkey you called Abu..." Jasmine peeked behind her back, finding Abu sitting on a carriage, "Aladdin's... I mean the Prince's monkey is named Abu."

"Did you know him?" Jasmine asked.

"Somehow." the woman started to look around her, carefully. "Are you alone? Isn't he here with you?"

"No, he's not. He's out of country." Jasmine didn't think if it was sensible to tell a commoner that their Prince was out of the country, it just spilled out of her mouth. She turned to look at the ground.

If Jasmine wasn't looking at the ground, she'd saw the emphatic, understanding gaze on the woman's eyes as she was looking at Jasmine.

"He is?"

Jasmine rose her gaze back to the woman, now seeing how emphatic her eyes were looking. It gave Jasmine conform, somehow. Knowing that her people cared about Aladdin, too. Understood that he was the one Jasmine wanted, more like needed to have in her life, and not some random prince from unknown culture.

"Yeah." she answered the woman. She wasn't going to explain the situation better, she couldn't worry her people. Carefully she played with her fingers, still holding the earrings tight.

"When is he coming back?"

"In two weeks."

The woman of the jewellery shop nodded her head. Taking her eyes away from Jasmine's she rested them to look at her hands. Maybe she was looking at her wedding ring or the earrings on her hands. After a while, she rose her eyes back to meet Jasmine's. "Well, I hope he returns safely." she told her with a kind voice, smiling shyly.

"Me too."

A moment passed and no one said a word. Jasmine smiled to the woman shyly as the situation got a little awkward.

"You can have the earrings, they'd look good on you, my Sultana." she told Jasmine, quietly.

First Jasmine got a bit scared of the royal title and felt her heartbeat risen. But when she released that no one had heard it, no one payed attention on them was when she relaxed. She met the woman's eyes and started to speak,

"Oh, no. I'll gladly pay for them, they are a wonderful piece of jewellery." she told the woman, shaking her head. "Is three gold coins enough?"

Handing her the coins, the woman took them and told Jasmine they were enough. She told her Sultana thank you and smiled to her for the last time. Without saying anything else, Jasmine turned around, placed the earrings to her pocked and walked away from the shop. She fixed her veil to cover her chin as it had fallen while she was talking with the owner of the jewellery shop. After looking around for a while, she saw Abu on top of a tall building. He quickly jumped off the roof, with a couple of stopovers and found his way to sit on Jasmine's shoulder again. Jasmine smiled to her furry friend and continued her way deeper to the city.

* * *

**Chapter 10 is finally here! Sorry for taking so long. I couldn't come up with any good idea at what Jasmine was doing alone in Agrabah, but then I wrote the "marketplace scene"and it turned out pretty good! Maybe a bit random but whatever ahaha. Btw I really like this chapter, especially the flashback, it turned out really sweet and it was so nice writing about Aladdin and Jasmine as engaged couple. I also managed to include Desert Moon in it. You probably already know but Desert moon was a deleted song from the live action. **

**I hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as i enjoyed writing it. :) **

**I'm having my final exams next week so the next update won't this weekend. Probably not even the weekend after that, I see what I can do.**

**Pls leave a review if you liked the chapter. Thanks for the couple of reviews for chapter nine, too. I appreciate! **


	11. Chapter 11

It is day five in Babauta for Aladdin and the rest of them. The day had started nicely. Aladdin was able to sleep in after a long day yesterday since they didn't have anything to do just this morning. Usually he was supposed to join the royals for the early breakfast, but today he was able to make an exception.

Aladdin and the royal guards had in fact enjoyed their time in Babauta. The people In Babauta treated them well and everyone in the palace was being nice to them. They were all a bit nervous when they started the trip, but in the end, it all turned out to be just fine – at least until now.

The day was warm and sunny, just a perfect weather to go to the royal stables. The King and Queen of Babauta had asked Aladdin if he wanted a tour around the royal stables of Babauta. They were excited to show their horses to the foreign prince. Babauta was famous of its talented horse riders and well raised horses – they entered the world champions every year and almost every year won the head price. Aladdin was happy to do something else then have not-so-exciting dinners with the royal family and Hakim. He didn't complain, of course. The food was really good. He even thought that the wine was more delicious then Agrabah's wine. He guessed that they had better resources in Babauta. The valleys were fruitful, and the multiple rivers kept the ground wet enough to plant almost around the whole year. Like many other kingdoms, Babauta was on the seaside too. What Aladdin had been told and was able to see, the country of Babauta was very variable. The palace maids had told them that Babauta divided to three parts: rocky coastline with a beautiful archipelago in South, the Northern lowland trapped behind the mountain range in the middle. He was also told that there were many beautiful waterfalls and many had come even farther then Agrabah to see them. Waterfalls kept the tourism alive in Babauta and they had been Babauta's treasure for as long as the history goes. It had made Aladdin smile – waterfalls were a beautiful sign, indeed. He had seen one once from top of the magic carpet...

Sadly, Aladdin had had no time to explore the beautiful nature of Babauta since he had so much political stuff to do. He was also a bit scared of going outside the palace walls – who knows what he could end up facing. Aladdin thought it was ridiculous how he was afraid of going to the city. He had spent his whole life in dangerous places, places that were not safe. He had needed to change homes many times and always ended up to a new area. He guessed that now that he had a choice, either to go outside to the danger or stay safe inside the palace walls, he preferred the safety. In the past he never really had a choice. What came to political stuff, they were slowly starting to talk about the war after a few days talking only about not so sensitive topics. Aladdin sometimes felt like talking about the weather, the cultural changes and the food was a waste of time, but he was willing to let go of his point of views. If this was something Babauta's King and Queen saw as something what was best to do, then he'd be fine with it too.

From now on, the king and the queen's children were also joining Aladdin to the dinners. The two older brothers were actually a nice company. They were smart, thoughtful and polite. Aladdin was glad that he was able to get to know them and he was sure that one day one of them was going to make an amazing king.

What did confuse Aladdin was how Princess Margot was acting. When she had joined him for the dinner first time, she had exchanged a friendly hug and said how nice it was to finally meet the Prince she had heard about so much. She was acting as she didn't know who he was. Aladdin surely had gotten confused but decided to play along. He didn't want to make himself a fool. There were this gaze in Morgan's eyes that knew him better. A gaze Aladdin had met once before. He was sure it had not been a dream and was curious what kind of a game they were playing with each other and the people around them.

Back to the present, Aladdin was walking to the gates to the stables, where the King had told him to meet him. There were a couple of guards at the gates to the royal stables, and when Aladdin reached them, they let him in.

The stables were huge. Aladdin had never seen a stable like this one. The aisles, the boxes... everything was ten times more stunning then Agrabah's stables. Now Aladdin was sure where Babauta had invested all their money.

Aladdin thought of finding his own mare. He remembered someone telling him that she lived in the end of the main aisle. So, he walked past the horses the royals owned. Most of them were tall and brown, athlete and even charming. Aladdin couldn't help but admire the effort they had put on their horses.

Finally, he reached the very last box at the end of the massive ail. There was his mare, Amada. She stood still and _neighed_ a little when she saw his owner. The bright face of the mare brought a smile on Aladdin's face too. Amada was a tall mare, very beautiful. She was colored white and grey; she looked like an angel bought straight from heaven. Within a year, she and Aladdin had been able to make a connection.

Aladdin opened the door between them and got into her box. Amada sniffed him a little and played with her large bottom lip around Aladdin's hand. With his other hand, he swiped the clean and shining fur under her hair.

"She's a lovely mare."

The sudden voice behind his back made Aladdin jump a little before turning around to see whom it belonged. And as he could have assumed, it belonged to the King.

"Thank you, sir."

"Mind if I ask, what is her name?"

The king stepped inside, to the other side of Amada. Amada picked it's ears up when she saw the stranger entering. But she was not a fearful or hot-heated horse, she welcomed the king with a small chortle.

The king smiled to the horse, offering it an apple, which Amada took more than happily.

"Her name's Amada. It was a wedding gift from my wife." Aladdin answered, remembering how Jasmine had surprised him with his very own horse two weeks after their wedding. Aladdin had told Jasmine he wasn't sure how to ride. Jasmine had told him Amada would teach him. That she was not an easy horse to ride, but very kind and it would notify of the mistakes and reward of the successes. Jasmine had also told him that he was going to love it. And she had been right. When was she not right?

"I see." the king answered, "Have you rode a lot?"

"Almost two years. I really enjoy it." Aladdin had not been able to ride before he got Amada but was grateful that he had been given an opportunity to learn it.

"You should try one of our stallions before you leave. They are a bit more temperamental, but really talented and pleasant to ride. I'm sure you would handle them with no problem."

"Thank you, I'll keep that in mind."

"Speaking of which, would you like to see some of them?"

"I'd love to."

With that, Aladdin and the king left Amada's box. Aladdin made sure to lock the door to her box and followed the king as they started to walk to the way Aladdin had entered the stable.

The king introduced Babauta's best horses to him. They were mostly stallions, but there were also a couple of mares. Every horse was beautiful on its own way. They were all tall and most of them were used in show jumping businesses. A couple of stallions were white, but mostly they were brown. He also saw a black mare. He thought it was the most beautiful horse of the royal horses. Her black eyes looked so mysterious and pure; they got perfectly mixed with the tone of her fur. The king told him that the black mare – Carmen named – had won many show jumping competitions and even a couple with the crown prince. They would use Carmen in competitions for two or three years more before its successful career would be done, and she'll get her well-deserved retirement.

When they had seen enough of the stables, the king wanted to show Aladdin the huge training field. Aladdin was surprised to see such a big field, but he should have known – where else to practice if not the palace yard?

At the moment there were two riders, both of them were practicing dressage. The king told that they were practicing for the incoming competition next week and a head price would be nice since they hadn't gotten one at dressage in a while. The king told Aladdin that the two mares they were riding were their "new potential rising stars".

Watching how the king could have talked about his horses for hours straight was actually inspiring. To see how a such a big passion horses were to him.

After a while the king called out the riders, asked them to say hello to their special quest. The other one was a young woman named Sasha and the other one was a man named Luca. They told him how they were practicing for the competition and had a confident feeling about it. They also asked Aladdin if he was a rider himself.

After spending a while watching Luca and Sasha riding, they returned into the stable and sat down. After collecting enough courage, Aladdin asked,

"May I ask you something about... the situation between our kingdoms, Your Highness?"

"Sure."

"What exactly would you like the Sultana to change to cancel the declaration of the war?"

To remind, Babauta had decelerated war on Agrabah because they didn't like the way Jasmine ruled. They thought that Jasmine didn't care for the foreign countries. Babauta seemed to see her ruling a bit distant and suspicious.

"To us it seems like the Sultana only cares for her own people. We have heard many complaints from our neighbour countries and our allies. It was slowly starting to effect on us, too. Therefore, we decelerated a war. Better now than later, but in my opinion, it was a bit rushed. If the Sultana will change her way of ruling more likeable to the foreign countries, I'm alright with cancelling the declaration."

"I'm sure the Sultana is able to make the changes that is needed. Her Highness is still very young, Your Highness. Try to understand. I'm sure she is willing to work hard to make this work."

King of Babauta only returned with a nod. For a long moment, it was quiet, until he spoke again,

"I have to talk about this with my wife and my two sons."

"Of course." Aladdin answered. His heart started to beat harder. Was he finally starting to make process? He had to force himself to not smile right now, he needed to stay polite that the king would take him seriously.

"I'll see you tonight at dinner, Prince." the king said and rose up from his seat.

"Of course." Aladdin rose from his seat too, offering his hand to him, he took it. They shook hands and the king left, Aladdin watched as he walked out of the stable.

And after a long moment, he released the breath he didn't know he had kept.

* * *

**I'M BACK! It's been a while. I'm so so so sorry this took so long. I have just had a lot going on and really was out of inspiration and didn't figure out anything to write. But I hope you like this chapter. I hope it doesn't have too much mistakes and is pleasant to read even if it was a bit rushed. I just wanted it out. But honestly, I'm so happy to be back again. I missed writing this story.**

**If you have anything to ask about the plot, the characters or anything, please do! I know plots with new characters can be difficult.**

**I'm asking you all to not give up on this story: I have really great things planned for the end. Just wait and see, now it must be a bit boring. I just have to write something before I can add the things I have in mind.**

**Let me know what you thought of the chapter. I will update the next chapter sooner then this one! Thank you for reading, means a lot.**

**Side note: I kept writing "thought" as"taught" for so long until I released my mistake. I apologize for that. English it not my mother tongue. **


	12. Chapter 12

_Eight days ago _

_In Agrabah_

_Even if the palace was Aladdin's home now, he hadn't really spent that much time in Jasmine's study room – until today. For the whole day the two of them hadn't done anything else than read a bunch of letters from Babauta, looking at the maps of Babauta and everything related to Babauta. Aladdin's eyes were starting to get tired when he started to read the – what, seventeenth letter of the day? He took a little break and looked in front of her, facing just there was Jasmine sitting on the other side of her desk. She was focused on the letter she was reading but knowing his wife, he could tell she, too, was starting to get lightheaded from all the reading. _

_Aladdin placed the letter down on her desk. For a while, he waited if she would have noticed that he had stopped, but she didn't. She kept reading and reading and swiped the loosen hair away from her face._

"_Jasmine?"_

_Finally, she rose her eyes. They questionably gazed on Aladdin. She didn't say anything, just kept looking at her husband, waiting for him to ask his upcoming question._

"_Do you want to grab something to eat? We could eat in the garden, get some fresh air."_

"_Yeah, sure. In a moment."_

_She turned back to her letter. _

_Aladdin sighted a little but made sure that Jasmine didn't hear it. He didn't want to disrespect her and her hard work and the time she was giving for preparation for the trip – to him. He stood up. Jasmine didn't rose her eyes, she seemed to make it seem like she didn't notice it, but she had surely had. _

_Aladdin circulated around the desk and walked next to her. Taking her hand, he gently started to pull her towards him. He managed to get her attention and she turned to look at him and changed her position to face him and not her desk. _

"_C'mon Jasmine. We have read for the last three hours. I need a break." he begged. _

_Jasmine looked at him with apologetic eyes and sighted a little, not just yet standing up even if Aladdin's hand was still pulling her upwards from her seat._

"_You're right. Sorry. I just really want everything to go right."_

"_I know you do. And we can continue later."_

_She smiled up to him and finally stood up as Aladdin helped her a bit. She threw her arms around his neck and he smiled to her, softly placing his own hands on her waist and smoothing the back of her dress there._

"_And I'm telling you, it will. I feel prepared." _

"_Thank you for being so patient with me."_

"_Of course. I love you."_

"_Love you too." Jasmine told him back, smiling._

_Next thing she knew she rose on her tiptoes and placed her lips on her husbands for a small yet delightful moment._

* * *

In Babauta

Waiting for the sun to rise so they could start their daily dinner Aladdin spent time in his room. He was reading a book, it told about a man who travelled thru the seven seas and found a mermaid. It was an interesting story. Jasmine had suggested it to him. She had said it was one of her favourites in her teenage years. He was almost finished with it, he really didn't have anyone to hang out with in Babauta, a lot of his free time he spent alone in his room, usually reading or just resting. The breakfasts and dinners were pretty much the only time he had company, but he wouldn't count that as free time. He did get to spend some time with the king at royal stables earlier today, which was only an hour long anyway.

It was almost the dinnertime and he was already ready to leave. He was wearing a new outfit, actually. He hadn't worn this one yet since he wasn't sure of the emerald details on his vest fitted with his skin colour. However, he had decided to give it a change tonight. But he didn't want to be too early, so he killed some time with reading.

After reading a couple of pages, he heard a knock on his door. He thought it was odd, he hadn't agreed with Hakim to get him to dinner. He put his book down and throw his legs on the right side of his bed. He got up and went to the door, to his surprise, Morgan stood outside the door. She was looking at the floor and stood pretty far from the door, like she had come to second thoughts about interrupting the foreign Prince but raised her head and stepped closer when she saw the door opening. She smiled kindly to Aladdin, when he opened the door for him, but didn't step in even if she had come a bit closer.

"Princess," Aladdin started with a surprising tone in his voice "may I help you with anything?"

Asking the question, he laid against the doorframe.

"I came to ask if you wanted to walk to the dinner with me, Prince Consort."

Morgan was wearing a dark blue dress with sparkling diamonds as it's details. It looked good on her.

"Sure, it would be my pleasure. But if we leave now, we would be early." he noted, rising his eyebrows a little.

It was a small walk to the dining room from where he lived in the palace while the short visit of his.

"I could show you around in the palace a little, if you wanted to. Or have you seen the whole palace yet?" Morgan said. She looked at Aladdin, with a little hope in her eyes.

"No, I haven't." Aladdin told her, calmly. She got him trapped there.

"Great!" she almost yelled and continued, "So, what do you say?"

"That would be really kind of you." he showed the way with his hand "After you, princess."

Morgan smiled to him and started walking away from the doorway, waiting for Aladdin to join her. Aladdin closed the door. He didn't have anything to get from his room anymore. Joining Morgan next to her he got surprised when she slipped her hand around Aladdin's arm, to a lockstep. He felt his body tense a little and was sure Morgan felt it too. Moreover, the next thing he heard was indeed Morgan speaking,

"Don't worry. I know you're a married man, Aladdin. It is a habit of Babauta's royal family to walk in a lockstep with a man. We do it with our friends and relatives, too." she said, looking a little up to him since she was quite tall herself.

Aladdin met Morgan's gaze and smiled to her a little, with a kind nod. He's body relaxed a little when he learned that this was something normal to Morgan. Morgan noticed it too and together they walked deeper to the palace.

They walked like this a while, nobody speaking. They were going to the north wing of the palace, that much Aladdin knew about where he was. He had heard about a nice little gallery of old pictures and paintings made in Babauta. He wondered if Morgan was going to show it to him. He didn't dare to break the silence with asking Morgan about it just yet.

Aladdin was being surprised about how polite and pleased Morgan seemed. She walked quietly arm in arm with Aladdin, not speaking a word, not even looking at him. She was looking around the palace instead of looking mystically into Aladdin eyes as she had done when they had first met. Maybe she had just given the wrong impression of herself then.

Aladdin thought of starting a conversation.

"So... where are you taking me?"

Morgan looked up to him, her blank green eyes answering the gaze of Aladdin's, "To the art gallery. Have you seen it yet?"

Aladdin was right, indeed.

"No, I haven't." he answered.

"Good. It's a treasure of ours, these paintings are worth millions." Morgan said. Turning to look in front of her, staring at nothing or just the blank walls, she continued, "For me most of them are worthless. I would be happy to donate them to the poorest of my people."

Aladdin looked down at her with questionable eyes, "Aren't they family heirlooms?" He thought Morgan as the princess of Babauta would want to keep the physical reminders of her roots, where she came from.

Morgan was still staring just straight, not even blinking. She just walked calmly yet managed to lead the way as they took a turn to right. Aladdin was still carefully looking down at her. The cold, blank gaze was back in her eyes for a moment.

Maybe he had been wrong about Morgan giving him the wrong first impression. Aladdin saw her blinking her eyes a couple of times before she spoke up,

"My family's a mess." she said. With a voice so quiet and so devastating Aladdin was glad he even heard.

Aladdin took his eyes away. He was surprised about what Morgan had just said. But it was not his business to fish for information about the royal family. And to be clear, he didn't really care. And he was sure that he couldn't even understand if she tried to explain. He didn't have the same experience about family as Morgan had – growing up with both parents and two older brothers in the royal palace was different then growing up in the streets alone. It goes without saying that.

Thinking about family Aladdin didn't bother to continue the conversation, or to start a new one and ignore the latest. However, after a while, he heard Morgan speaking,

"How about you? Where do you come from?" she turned to look at Aladdin.

Aladdin gulped. His past was the last thing he had planned to talk to the royals of Babauta. But, it was his duty to answer her royal highness, in spite of the topic. Not turning to look back at Morgan, he started,

"I... um..." he tried figuring out the right way to tell about his _family_, "I lost both of my parents when I was young. Jasmine's the only family I have."

The memory of Jasmine flashed through his mind. But even if he had wanted to, he wasn't able to grab on that thought for even seconds before he was asked the next question,

"So, you're an orphan?"

"Yeah." Aladdin said. With a tone of shame in his voice. Aladdin knew that the tone was there for no reason, he wasn't able to do anything what it came to his parents. He was only six when his mother had passed away and he didn't even remember the face of his father. He was a child only, who didn't seem to have stars lined up for his favour - until now, of course.

As he looked down at Morgan, he saw something he didn't except to see in her eyes – empathy.

"I'm sorry." Morgan said, with a voice so calm that it made it seem true. Like she really cared.

Maybe she did care. Or it was just temporary.

"Don't be." Aladdin told her, so quietly. Everything had worked out for him in the end.

Seeming to have finished the talking, Morgan took her arm away from Aladdin's. Without saying anything, she took something from the pocket of her dress Aladdin didn't know her dress had, a key. They seemed to be at their destination. Aladdin watched as she put it to the keyhole, it made a little sound as it unlocked the door. She opened the giant golden door in front of them, making it seem like a piece of cake. She walked into the room, holding the door for Aladdin. He walked in after her.

Aladdin hadn't really known what to except for the art gallery, but this was as close as what he had imagined. Still, he was amazed, they didn't have anything like this at home.

There were paintings everywhere. All of them were covered with glasses with more keyholes on them. Just for the extra protection. There were no guards, maybe they had a better way of keeping an eye on the paintings. The room itself was small and narrow since the little paintings didn't need too much room. There were no windows, no way to sneak in. The walls were red even though you couldn't really see them as they were filled with paintings and pictures, and the ceiling had crystal lamps to bring a light to the room.

Looking closer to the paintings, they all seemed to be portrays of humans, the past queens and kings. There was only one painting that didn't have a human in it, it was a painting of a sunrise, a beautiful one.

"Is this the only painting that is not a portrait?" he asked Morgan, who had been quiet for the whole time inside, she had let Aladdin to first look at the paintings in peace.

Morgan walked next to Aladdin, looking now at the yellow, orange and red shades of the painting.

"Yes, it is. My personal favourite. My grandmother painted it."

"It's beautiful, she's talented."

Morgan looked up to Aladdin with a smirk on her face, "You have a good taste, Prince."

Aladdin looked back at her and tried his best to answer the smirk with a small smile.

"After she passed away, I made sure that no one didn't sell it just because it's not a portrait." Morgan turned to look at the painting again, "My parents wanted to get rid of it, but I managed to save it. It reminds me of her, and it was important to her, so it's important for me too."

Still looking at Morgan, Aladdin told her quietly, "You must have loved her."

"I really did." she said, still staring blank straight.

For a moment, there was only silence as they both looked at the painting while Aladdin had also turned to look at it. Both of them probably had their own thoughts on their minds, different persons.

"When I think about my mother, I just always remind myself that she's in the better place now." Aladdin said with a voice so soft. He didn't know if he had planned on saying it to remind himself or to tell Morgan that the one that she loved was alright, better then alright.

Neither way, he was glad that he had said it aloud as the next thing Morgan said, well, it touched his heart,

"Yeah, I should try that."

* * *

**Chapter 12 is here! I hope you enjoyed it. I managed to write a small flashback with Jasmine for the beginning of the chapter since you all must miss her and I missed her too. It's a bit random but I hope you liked it. I also hope you liked seeing Morgan in this chapter and learning a bit more about her.**

**I also hope you have enjoyed the chapters where things happen in Babauta even if they had Aladdin and Jasmine apart. We are so close to the end of that now! **

**Pardon for the mistakes I made in the last chapter - Aladdin's own horse was a new plot twist I added a bit too late ad I wrote Morgan's name wrong once. My bad.**

**Please leave a review! I enjoy reading them. Thank you all for reading my story, once again.**


	13. Chapter 13

Day 14 in Babauta

The trip that was supposed to be helpful and to ensure Agrabah's future had started to feel like an endless lasting camp. Days passed by, a new sunrise after a long night, a new sunset following the same long night... it had become to be this non-stopping circle. Time felt like it had stopped short here in Babauta. For every day of the last week Aladdin had asked the royal couple, if they had decided what to do with the declaration of war. Every day he got the same answer: "Not yet, Prince Consort. Would you mind staying for a few more days?" Everyday Aladdin had answered with a simple _sure _or_ yes_. Because what else could he do? It was his job to finish the journey successfully, to bring back peace between the two kingdoms.

He was tired all the time and couldn't get sleep at nights. Being away from home for such a long time and stressing over multiple things were too much along with the lack of energy from the tasks he did in his daily life in the foreign palace. They all seemed to be a bit exhausted for the last few days. They were supposed to be on their way back home already. Aladdin stressed about not being enough, or that the delay of the royal family's decision was his own fault. No one blamed him, but it was easy for him to think that, since they had spent far too many days in Babauta, and the soldiers were starting to look and act frustrated. It was not their fault. They all wanted home already.

Speaking of home, they were indeed going to be late. Did they like it or not, it didn't matter. It slowly but surely killed Aladdin inside. He had promised Jasmine to be away for two weeks, and no more. So, here's another broken promise. They were supposed to be home by tomorrow and they obviously weren't. They were still stuck in Babauta, waiting and waiting for the answer to the question. Are they going to cancel the declaration of war? The idea of worried Jasmine waiting for him to return didn't make him feel any better. He thought of her every day. He was completely all right, no cuts nor bruises anywhere, but how could she know. He missed her so much.

Aladdin and his guards had once again had a dinner, finished it and he was now in his room. Well, he was on the balcony. He leaned to the balcony railings and was looking at the city under him. The city was really beautiful and calm. For the entire two weeks there, the street noise hadn't bothered him just once. Behind the city view rose a few mountains. And behind them, a beautiful sunset in its light reddish colours. The wind had started to blow and made Aladdin shiver a little. Babauta was a nice country, after all. Filled with genially people and beautiful landscapes with an admiring lifestyle... Regardless of all that, he wished he could be home soon.

Nevertheless, he genuinely had enjoyed the time he had had in Babauta, he was treated well and he was thankful to be able to travel, it was something he could have only dreamed about only a few years ago.

A short moment after there came a voice behind him.

"Prince Consort?"

Aladdin jumped a little hearing the voice. Not too much, just to get him out of his thoughts. Soon he recognized the voice, it belonged to one of the soldiers they had bought along from Agrabah.

Turning around, he still rested his right hand on the balcony railing and looked up to the soldier called _Samad_.

"Samad, what is it?" he asked the young, brown-haired soldier.

Samad fixed his posture a little bit before answering Aladdin's question.

"They are asking you and the rest of us in the throne room."

Aladdin raised his eyebrows. Normally they would be by themselves after the dinner. Most of them went to asleep soon after. Why would they ask to meet on the throne room?

"Why? We just saw them at dinner."

"I don't know, Prince. But they said it's important."

Taking his eyes away from the young soldier, Aladdin looked on the sky. If they had asked them there to pass on bad news, he wouldn't be able to take it. He had worked so hard for the last two weeks. He had told them everything good about Agrabah, and even everything that needed a little fixing. And of course, listened and memorized everything the royals had told him.

On the other hand, if it was good news, that he and the rest would be able to go home, this day would easily turn into one of the best days of his life. With this little spark of hope on his mind, he turned to look at Samad again and nodded,

"We shall go then."

"After you, Prince."

With the new Prince's lead, he and Samad walked towards the bedroom door. Aladdin hadn't had time to change his clothes yet, so he was already ready to meet the royals, again.

They entered the corridor soon and started to walk towards the throne room. Aladdin heard Samad's footsteps right behind him.

"The rest of the soldiers are already there. They send me to get you." Samad told him reaching his side.

Aladdin turned to look at him while walking. "That's good. Thank you, Samad."

Samad bowed his head a little bit to his prince.

Turning to look in front of him again, he turned left and took the stares that lead to a floor lower, where the throne room was. The stairwell was quite dark, only a few lamps lighted the area so you wouldn't misstep the stairs.

Next thing Aladdin heard was Samad asking the question he feared he didn't have the answer to as the echo of the stairwell's repeated it a few times.

"Do you think we'll be able to return home soon?"

Aladdin felt like he had paled right in front of him, but he knew it was just a feeling. He didn't want to let his men down, but neither did he want to make a promise he wouldn't be able to keep. He was silent for awfully long, he felt Samad's eyes sticking to his back, waiting for an answer.

"I don't know, Samad."

He knew it was better for him to be honest.

With that, Samad took his eyes away from him, turning to look at the floor, he nodded a little. Aladdin saw all that from the corner of his eye as Samad had come to walk next to him again as the stairs had ended.

"Homesick?" Aladdin asked and turned to fully look at his friend.

"No, I'm just..." Samad started, but soon took a long break. Aladdin just waited for him to continue. The sentence ended in a sight, "Yes, maybe a little." he said, changing the course of his answer.

Nodding a little, he felt like he needed to say something, "I'll do what I can to get us home as soon as possible." He took a little break to think about what he was going to say next and continued, very silently and carefully, "I miss home too."

"Thank you, Prince."

Maybe Samad had felt like he needed to answer something to him, or maybe he was genuinely thankful for the work that the prince had done.

"Of course."

Not a long after, they had finally reached the doors of the throne room. Nervousness started to rise on the new Prince's nerves. Meeting the royals of Babauta always rose a little anxiety in his head. He knew he had to get everything right in front of them. Mistakes had not been allowed for the past two weeks.

Knowing his position, Samad moved to walk behind Aladdin as the guards of Babauta opened the giant golden doors for them. Aladdin took the last long breath before entering the throne room.

There everyone was, waiting for him – and there was literally everyone; the King and the Queen, of course, they were sitting on their thrones. Their children were there, too. Aladdin spotted Princess Morgan on the right side of his father's throne, as her brothers stood a bit closer to the aisle. He even saw some new guards, ones that he hadn't seen before. He shivered to the idea of him needing to make a good first impression of himself to them.

When he reached Hakim, he stopped to stand right next to him. He saw Hakim taking a few steps back, it seemed like it was needed to make sure he was on the highest position – to the new guards, he assumed.

He felt everyone's eyes land on him. He bit his tongue out of nervousness. Was everyone waiting for him to speak?

"You asked to see me and my soldiers, Your Highness." Aladdin said, with a voice so loud making sure that the king sitting on the high throne heard him. The words trembled between each other.

"Yes, Prince Consort. We have something important to tell you."

Sweat of nervousness started to get on his forehead. He carefully played with his fingers behind his back.

"We've been thinking about everything you've been telling us for the past two weeks and everything we've heard about your kingdom. It seems like you're a trustworthy Prince and we also decide to believe the words you have said about your wife."

Aladdin listened closely, losing the consciously of everything around him and focused only to the king and the words he was saying.

"I and the Queen have decided to undo the decoration of war towards your kingdom. We apologize for it and hope it will not effect on us or the relation between our kingdoms in the future."

Aladdin felt like he could faint. He had done it. He had actually been able to save Agrabah. The idea of that had seemed so distant even only a few minutes ago. He had forgotten how to breathe, but it didn't matter, he was able to learn it again at home, in the safe Agrabah. A small, almost invisible smile escaped to his lips while he tried to internalize everything that the king had said only seconds ago.

He collected his thoughts together quickly after he released it was his turn to speak.

"Thank you, Your Highness. I promise. You aren't going to regret this."

Aladdin saw the king nodding a little. A small but yet a smile had come to his face, too.

"It's a deal, then. We'll make sure that a ship to Agrabah will be ready to sail as soon as possible. You'll be able to start the journey to home by the morning."

_Home_. They were able to go home.

It seemed that everything had worked out the best way possible.

The next thing the young Prince Consort heard was a sword. Someone had pulled a sword from their scabbard.

And before anyone could react, before anyone was able to make a move to stop the upcoming act, the sword was on him.

* * *

**I'M BACK! I'm sorry for letting you all to wait for so long, again. But chapter 13 is here now and I hope you enjoyed reading my writing after almost two months.**

**I hope you are still interested to read this story. We are turning towards the end of it and I will complete it since I have written it so far already. That's a promise. I hope some of you are hanging on with me till the finale. And I hope Aladdin stories are still interesting to read even tho the movie came out over six months ago.**

**I'm also sorry for the lack of Jasmine, but we will see her from now on on every (I hope) chapter. And also Aladdin and Jasmine are reuniting very soon! Stay tuned, two or three chapters to go. I know fanfictions that separate the main couple can sometimes get a bit hard to read, for me at least. I don't know why I decided to write it myself hahah!**

**Also want to point out that this chapter was so hard! It was so hard to get over the beginning and get the "writing flow". And it's a bit short. But I just had to left you with a cliffhanger there. **

**Thank you for reading! It means so much to me. I hope you're still enjoying my story.**


	14. Chapter 14

"_Someone __get__ him away from the Prince!"_

"_Get a doctor!"_

"_Is he going to be alright?"_

Distant calls, voices he didn't recognise, sound of a sword. His memories from the night before were so blurry. He remembers that they had just made peace with the kingdom, how he had forgotten to catch a breath and how he somehow had been able to hear the silent breaths of relief behind him. The next thing he knew, the sword had been on him. He was too slow to fully escape the cold metal, it had left a pretty deep, long cut to the left side of his stomach. He remembers trying to fight back the Babawa soldier as he had attacked on him again. How he had made a sudden move backwards and fell over because of the pain on his stomach. How he had rolled away from the next _stabbing _attempt. When they had finally gotten the soldier – whose name Aladdin still didn't know – away from him, been able to tear his sword from him he had taken a look at his wound – and how he had gotten scared how much it had bled to his white robes. Suddenly he had started to feel dizzy, but he never lost consciousness. The room had started to spin, and his breathing had started to slow down. He remembers how Hakim and a couple of more people had dragged him away from the throne room. It had hurt. He remembers mourning in pain as much as he wanted to keep it inside him.

That's pretty much all he remembers. The images in his head are blurry.

He remembers clearly, he had been close to _death_. At least what he had experienced had felt like it.

No one had told him much more about the event. Some of the doctors that tried to make the bleeding stop - and had succeeded - had told him last night how he's cut wasn't that deep and his reflexes had saved him when he took the little step back right before the sword had hit him.

His mind travelled to Jasmine every time he thought about last evening. She had been right. She was always right. It was not safe of him to go to Babauta under such circumstances. It made him feel so sorry for her. At least he would go home with good news as well, not only bad news.

When he would be able to go home. He was late. Knowing Jasmine, Aladdin knew that she must be so worried. He had promised to come back in two weeks, he wasn't.

After a long night and a few hours of sleep at noon, he was resting at a bed, not his own. He was in some hospital kind of a room. He couldn't move, he's cut would kill him. It burned and was red, Babauta's people had tried to take care of it, but they didn't want to spend expensive tools on a foreign Prince's wound. Aladdin knew it was the truth. It seemed so stupid to him – it was their soldier who had injured him. But Aladdin didn't want to fight over it. Now that the King and the Queen had decided to cancel the declaration of war, he had too much to risk. He hoped he'll be able to sail home early this evening, when in Agrabah he would really be taken care of.

Slowly he reached his hand to lift first the sheet and then his shirt, just to see how the cut is – it had stopped bleeding, as there was no fabric pressed on it anymore. Regardless, it didn't look much better. The reddish, long wound had dried and looked a lot rawer than it had before. The skin around it had started to pale. Aladdin knew that if someone touched it with anything wet it would sting so badly.

For a short moment he thought about going back to sleep, just so he could forget the burning feeling at his lower stomach even only for a moment.

But in no more than a couple of minutes, a knock stopped his attempt.

Who else then Hakim stepped in, not bothering to wait for a permission.

"Prince? How are you feeling?"

"I'll be okay." was all he could say right now.

Hakim walked closer to Aladdin's bed. Aladdin tried sitting a bit more straight up. He managed, but it was definitely not the best possible posture for the wound. Even if he didn't know much about medicine, he knew that if he could get stitches to his wound, it would help. But Babauta wasn't interested on spending their medical materials on him.

"We'll be able to sail back to Agrabah this evening, but if you don't feel well enough to travel..."

"No, no. We'll go. I'm well enough."

He couldn't delay their homecoming even a day more.

* * *

In Agrabah

Where the warm sun never stopped burning, in Agrabah, people had started their days. The ocean was busy with its many boats, bringing the finest elements from all over the world to the royals, but also the people of Agrabah and sailing Agrabah's riches away, wherever every ship had their own destination. Regardless of the haste of Agrabah's harbour, the streets were even more hectic. Every shop at the marketplace was open, and the area was filled with people; women, men, children. Loud noises came around everywhere, from the sellers, from the animals and the people going about their days. Children run around the city, laughing so loud their echoes repeated themselves all the way to the palace.

Jasmine could hear them too, as she was catching air on her balcony. Or she should, if she could just concentrate her thoughts away from the one thing she had been thinking about all day and night long. She looked at the sunny sky and the spot where the city's buildings beautifully hit the horizon while letting her thoughts run wildly in her mind. Like the warm wind run wildly around her hair. From the look of her face, anyone could tell what or whom she was thinking.

Aladdin, her husband Aladdin.

Having so many royal tasks to fill up the lonely days didn't help her anymore. Jasmine was worried. It was so noticeable. She couldn't draw her thoughts away from her husband who she hadn't seen in over two weeks now, not even if she tried drowning them between all the papers, letters and scrolls which she didn't even have much to do anymore. During these two weeks, Jasmine had been able to do so many different tasks. She would do her work at noon and spent the early evening with her family. Or rather her father, and best friends, Dalia and the Genie and her animal friends, Abu and Rajah. She couldn't call it a family without Aladdin. He was half of it, after all. She was indeed glad that she'd been able to do much, but the whole two weeks had felt like at least half of her life was missing when Aladdin wasn't around.

It was strange to go to sleep alone. It was strange to wake up alone. It was strange to not have someone to hold onto whenever you felt like it.

And the worst thing was, now Jasmine couldn't think any other options for her husband's delay home then the absolutely worst ones.

She sighted to her own thoughts letting her eyes rest on the city under her gaze.

"Jasmine?"

A voice so close to her interrupted her thoughts. She rose her gaze a little bit, taking a deep sight, trying to look and feel strong for the outside world. And when she felt like it, she turned around seeing Dalia watching her from stairs that led to her balcony.

"Are you okay?" she asked. Dalia had always made sure Jasmine was all right ever since she was a handmaid to the little princess. It was her job, her responsibility. Dalia couldn't let go of the habit, even is Jasmine was a grown up now, married herself and the Sultana of the land as well.

But to be honest, making sure one another was fine was not a responsibility of only a handmaiden, it was above all a responsibility of a friend. Dalia was Jasmine's best friend more than she had ever been her maid.

"I'm fine, Dalia."

And for being by Jasmine's side for so many years, during sleepless nights and cheerful days as well, Dalia knew that was a lie. She gave Jasmine a look,

"Answer me honestly."

Jasmine's face changed from neutral to worried, in just a heartbeat. It was almost terrifying how this woman could hide her real feelings from everyone but those who knew her well. It made her maybe a strong leader, but a stubborn friend – and a partner.

But honestly, if worrying could cause you to faint, Jasmine would be unconscious right now. That's how she really felt, like she could faint just now and lose the balance causing her to fall from her balcony.

Jasmine knew that she didn't have to keep lying. She knew that Dalia knew her better than that.

"I'm not okay. Where is he? Why is he not home yet?"

Dalia walked closer to her and took Jasmine's both hands on hers. She didn't quite know what else to do. Talking might work, but she'd need time. Jasmine squeezed her friend's hands and looked down at them - avoiding the eye contact. Dalia did look at her face but didn't force Jasmine on to it.

"He'll be home. You have to have faith in him."

Jasmine rose her gaze, but to Dalia's surprise, she didn't look at her. She looked just past her eyes and stared blackly towards something with a serious tone at her gaze, seeming like she was thinking about something.

Just about when Dalia felt the need to say something, Jasmine's voice was heard,

"I'm going after him."

Saying that, she freed her hands from Dalia's and coldly passed her, going back inside her room.

Dalia turned around, now back facing the balcony but didn't bother to run after her.

"Jasmine, no."

"You can't stop me." Jasmine turned around now facing Dalia again and stopped close to the entrance of her balcony but was already inside her room.

"Jasmine, think clearly. They do not want you there. You can make things worse."

"But Dalia, I know my husband. He would be back by now if he was alright." Jasmine said, with a voice a bit raw, like she was on the edge of tears.

"Wouldn't you think?" she asked her a sudden follow-up question knowing that Dalia would have the answer to it, since she, too, knew Aladdin. She had seen him fixing his own mistakes when he had come back from the ends of the earth and keeping the promise of freeing his new best friend, the Genie.

Dalia knew that the boy was loyal and genuine. Why would he keep Jasmine waiting?

And that is why Dalia didn't answer anything. Not a single word came out from her mouth. Jasmine kept staring at her, waiting for an answer, which she already suspended she wouldn't get. The silence told Jasmine the answer - Dalia knew that something could have gone wrong in Babauta.

Trying to hold back the anxiety rising in Jasmine's lungs, heart and through her whole body, she broke the silence,

"I'm taking carpet, and I'm leaving. As soon as I tell Baba to look after the kingdom for a while."

"You and I both know it's not the right thing of you to do. I-" Dalia wasn't able to finish her sentence when a loud noise towards the balcony interrupted them. Trying to find the cause of that noise with her gaze, Jasmine walked closer to the balcony where Dalia had already turned around to look. When she reached Dalia's side, the girls changed looks.

The only thing new they could find from Jasmine's balcony was a bird, who now sat quietly on the balcony railing.

"Did that bird make that noise?" Dalia asked, knowing the bird was maybe not the smallest but not so big either that it wouldn't easily make a noise so loud.

But there was nothing else, it had to be the bird.

Jasmine passed Dalia and walked even closer to the bird. Slowly not harassing the visitor away. It didn't seem to mind about the two women's company. Walking closer and closer, she looked the bird very carefully, squinting her eyes. Her eyes first travelled to its feathers on its wings, then to its feet. Finally, she realized what it was.

"It's a... pigeon. A messenger pigeon. It has a letter in its foot!"

"From who?"

Jasmine reached her fingers to the bird's legs. She carefully grabbed the white letter from its foot. When the letter was away from the bird's foot, it flew away. Jasmine stopped for a moment to see where the bird was going – it headed towards the ocean.

She focused her mind back to the letter and opened it.

Dalia kept looking at her. She didn't want to rush her but was curious to know what the letter said and who had sent the messenger pigeon.

All she knew was that birds with papers were not a practical tradition of passing messages in Agrabah. It had to be from abroad.

Looking between Jasmine's fingers, Dalia noticed that she had _two _pieces of paper in her hands. The first being the letter Jasmine was reading. Was the other one... a map?

"Dalia, you got to hear this."

"What?"

"Your Highness, your husband is with us. Don't worry. We are taking care of him. He has a high fever and can't travel. Your guard group is with us too. You can visit him, if you want to. Enclosed herewith a map, which you can use to find a way to our home. We are trustworthy people." Jasmine read the letter aloud.

They both were speechless for a while. They didn't know what to say, or how to feel. Jasmine opened the map in her hands.

"It looks like they are still in Babauta."

There was a small circle drawn near the harbour of Babauta and more accurate address written besides it. There they must be staying.

"I knew that he was hurt."

"It just says he has a fever, he could easily have gotten sick at home, too."

"A _high _fever. It can be because of anything. A poison?" without letting Dalia to answer, she continued, "I'm going to see him."

"Wait, Jasmine, what if it's a trap. What if he's not there? They could be lying. What do you know about these people who tell to _have _Aladdin at their home _recovering_?" she said, raising her voice between every word.

"I have to take the risk." she snapped, "I've got to see him Dalia, I haven't seen him in days."

Calming down, she tried to find something to say which would make Dalia see the situation from her point of view.

"He's my husband."

Dalia fell silent. She couldn't stop her.

"Go then." she told her. A flame of hope lighted in Jasmine's eyes. "But you're not going alone." She rose her eyebrows to her. "I'm coming with you."

It was clearer than ever that she wouldn't go alone, to the land where she was not wanted. No one would let her go alone. Not to mention the fact that she'd needed to step into some unknown person's house.

"But Dalia, you're... pregnant." Jasmine said, thinking if it was safe of Dalia to leave with her.

"So? That doesn't mean I can't do anything."

Jasmine gave her a doubtful look. She didn't want anything to happen to the baby nor Dalia. She couldn't let her obsess to go and see if her husband was safe to cause any harm to anyone but possibly herself.

Knowing Jasmine, Dalia knew what she was thinking about. "I'll be alright. He's important to me, too."

When Dalia mentioned Aladdin, Jasmine couldn't squeeze the little smile escaping to her lips for a short moment. Looking to Dalia, she saw a smile on her face too.

They could do this together, bring Aladdin back home.

"Thank you." she told her quietly.

She didn't manage to come up with anything else to say. She was purely _thankful _that she'll be by her side.

"Of course." Dalia nodded her head for the young Sultana.

"Now, we'll go tell Baba and your husband that we're leaving. With carpet, we'll be there before the sunset."

"Sound good."

* * *

**Here you go, chapter 14. I hope you enjoyed it. :)**

**Also happy new year! I hope 2020 will be a blessed one to every one of you. And I also hope that everyone who celebrated Christmas enjoyed their time!**

**Finally we get to see Jasmine again, she seems to be doing all right. But where is Aladdin? Why does he have a high fever? They did left the palace... I promise that all the answers will be out in the next chapter, if I'm leaving you all a bit confused right now. Just hang on please! **

**Thank you for reading, once again!**


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